THE TRUTH OF 
SPIRITUALISM 



"RITA" 




\t.U\ 



(topightN? ._ 

C.OEXRIGHT DEPOSIE 



THE TRUTH 

OF SPIRITUALISM 



THE TRUTH OF 
SPIRITUALISM 



BY 

"RITA" 

(Mrs. Desmond Humphreys) 




PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON 
J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

1920 



.His 



COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 



PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 

AT THE WASHINGTON SQUARE PRESS 

PHILADELPHIA, U.S.A. 



©CI.A565785 
MAY -5 1920 

'V-vO } 



Q 



o 



TO 
Sir OLIVER J. LODGE 

WITH GRATITUDE FOR 
"RAYMOND" 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER PAGE 

Introduction 9 

I. The Beginning of the Spiritual Movement 27 

II. Seances — Public and Private 44 

III. Manifestations 53 

IV. Materialisation 59 

V. Automatic Writings 69 

VI. Explanation and Demonstration 81 

VII. Certain Mediums and Certain Psychic Communi- 
cations 102 

VIII. Perception and Theory 118 

IX. Speculation and Verification 131 

X. Problems of Life 142 

XI. On Spirit Continuance and Survival 156 

XII. What is Spiritualism ? 167 



INTRODUCTION 

At the beginning of the nineteenth cen- 
tury a wave of spiritual development swept 
over the world. 

Men began to question of the Life Beyond 
as they had not previously questioned. The 
Theosophists on the one hand, and the Spir- 
itualists on the other, announced new discov- 
eries — and prophesied a new order of human 
experience. Professional mediums offered 
proofs of communication with the " other 
side." Books sprang mushroom-like from 
the soil of explanation. Seances, spirit life, 
spirit teaching, brought in their wake a whole 
flotilla of lesser craft, such as table-turning, 
clairvoyance and physical phenomena, more 
or less trustworthy. A great outcry arose. 
The Church, as ever, was the severest judge 
and the most dogmatic denouncer of a " new 
thing." It judged without seeking evidence, 
and denounced what it had not troubled to 



INTRODUCTION 

understand, from the pulpit of its own esti- 
mate of values. It started an onslaught 
on mediums, and their strange facul- 
ties of clairvoyance, clair-audience and 
psychic revelations. 

It knew nothing of these matters, but want 
of knowledge has never prevented the 
Church from censuring what it has not 
troubled to investigate. Witness the archives 
of science, astrology and alchemy; the fu- 
neral pyres of the Index Eoopurgatorius, that 
ecclesiastical death warrant of progress or 
research. The same fate awaited any ex- 
ponent of spiritism. Even at the present 
time anyone who takes up the question seri- 
ously is somewhat in the position of a martyr 
awaiting the first stone. He will assuredly 
be assaulted with the missiles of sceptics, 
worried and badgered for " proofs " by be- 
lievers and unbelievers, ridiculed by the intel- 
lectuals and scoffed at by the materialists. 
Yet in spite of all this there have been many 

religious men, and not a few scientific ones, 

10 



INTRODUCTION 

who have come to the conclusion that the 
spiritual side of life is a real and continuous 
carrying on of the intelligence manifested on 
the material. Also, that the two planes, ma- 
terial and spiritual, are closely allied, and 
that death is more of a bridge than a barrier 
between them. 

In order to arrive at such a conclusion 
there must have been good and sufficient rea- 
son, and some evidence. People who think 
deeply are not easily convinced, and a con- 
ception of the relationship between death and 
survival is not given to every human con- 
sciousness. It has been hedged round with 
difficulties from childhood upwards; sup- 
ported by false ideals, false religious teach- 
ing, and that crudest type of mental and 
moral control — public opinion. 

To begin with, people will not think of 
death as release. They think of it as a terror, 
an enemy, a foe to be fought by every physi- 
cal power and contrivance. Almost every 

human being in the civilised world fears 

11 



INTRODUCTION 

death. Life they know and can endure even 
in its hardest and harshest aspect, but death 
is the black cap of justice, the inevitable finis 
to place and project and ambition. 

There is no welcome for Life's grim foe 
when he stands on the threshold of home, 
or seizes his victim by the cruel aid of acci- 
dent. And this in spite of religion and 
churches and priestly teaching, and Chris- 
tianity, so called. For alas ! the real Christ- 
like attributes are as rare as they are 
Utopian, and though man has been rescued 
from the brute level he is very, very far from 
the higher attributes of the Godhead which 
should be life's crowning expression. 

Now if spiritualism or spiritism has done 

nothing else, it has succeeded in showing that 

life is not only continuous after death, but 

preserves much the same mental conditions. 

There is no instantaneous conversion of the 

human ego into a cherubim or an archangel. 

The spirit nature of the man or woman or 

child who has " passed on " from the physi- 

12 



INTRODUCTION 

cal plane remains the same. The body was 
merely its envelope, its means of manifesting 
various passions and desires, or evolving cer- 
tain gifts of genius which dowered its earthly 
inhabitation. If that spirit was lovable, 
brave, generous, unselfish on the earth plane, 
it carries with it these same attributes. 
Through their good and noble achievements 
it wins for itself place and higher powers, 
and spiritual duties by which to exercise or 
perfect its still active life. 

Man has been made the interpreter of 
the universe according to his powers of dis- 
cernment. It has unfolded to him its secrets 
gradually and surely. Not half of them are 
yet revealed, but those that answer to his 
needs and assist his mental and spiritual 
faculties are there to his hand when he 
seeks them. 

The spiritual needs of man can only be 
sustained by truth and conviction. Miracles 
or wonders do not satisfy, they only create 
an insatiable curiosity which is for ever ques- 

13 



INTRODUCTION 

tioning, and for ever unanswered. It is here 
that religion, in its accepted condition, so sig- 
nally fails. Its proofs rest on unreconcilable 
traditions. Its thousands of forms, creeds 
and churches are only bewildering to the 
seeker after truth. Why the " Church " ar- 
rogates to itself the sole power of explaining 
and teaching religion, only the Church 
knows. Certainly its teachings have been 
more terrifying than satisfactory. Fear has 
been its weapon of assault, and the penalties 
of an after existence its chain of bondage. 
To keep man in subjection to itself has been 
the Church's one endeavour since it became 
a corporate body of organisation. Proclaim- 
ing itself spiritual, it has at once attacked and 
defamed what is really a demonstration of 
spirituality. It has condemned man to a 
brief, unsatisfactory existence and an eter- 
nity of either compensation or condemna- 
tion. It terrorises the child's mind with 
thought of hell-fire and a Supreme Judge 
whom childhood and youth must naturally 

14 



INTRODUCTION 

offend, and then offers it the consolation of 
a Christian heaven which in no way ap- 
plies or appeals to any material conception 
of existence. 

What the Church and its forms of religion 
seem to overlook is the fact that man is a 
spiritual continuation of himself even after 
he has resigned a material existence. Within 
his material body, imprisoned in the envelope 
of flesh, has always been that self, and he 
takes with him into the next life that per- 
sonality which he alone knows. Not the best 
or worst of us is fully revealed to even the 
closest friend or relative on this plane of ma- 
terial existence. No one knows Me as I am 
save God who made Me what I am. And 
what I know, and what every thinking, sen- 
sible searcher after truth knows, is that I feel 
within myself I shall not cease to be myself. 
I shall want to exist usefully. I shall want 
to fulfil my powers and exercise my talents. 
I cannot feel that they will pass into nothing- 
ness for the one good and sufficient reason 

15 



INTRODUCTION 

that there is no such thing as nothingness. 
Things change, but they do not cease to be; 
life develops, it does not end. 

It is this recognised feeling of perpetuity 
on another plane and in another form of life 
that has given spiritualism its fascination as 
well as its powers of comfort. I ask any 
sensible individual who has read the Book 
of Revelation whether his soul or spirit, or 
whatever he chooses to call his inner con- 
sciousness, can picture itself content with 
such an after-existence as there described. 
And even if those transcendent " joys " of 
harps and hymns do seem satisfactory, 
how does he contemplate an eternity of 
their continuation? 

Every active force, every output of intel- 
ligence, every spark from the divine flame 
of genius rebels against extinction. But the 
Church has taken the physical side of man 
as his measure and representation, and any- 
one reading the Bible or Prayer Book or any 
theological work on that subject will see that 

16 



INTRODUCTION 

the inner, seeking, restless ego is unconsid- 
ered. The resurrection of the body is spe- 
cially defined in the Creed, and that body is 
to enter into some vague, glorified existence 
and go about crowned and robed and singing 
devotional hymns to the Supreme Deity it 
has been taught to fear while on earth and 
assuredly seems unable to comprehend in 
heaven. This is what the ordinary religious 
teaching of earth has meant. This is what 
cleric and Church and Sunday school have 
imparted as religious faith. And this it is 
which robs death of no terror but rather im- 
plants it; which makes physical life so all- 
important and gives the body pre-eminence 
over the spirit of man. 

Religion as taught on earth has made 
death a most unpleasant word, and the cere- 
monies and penalties of death a most un- 
pleasing observance. Spiritualism, on the 
other hand, has glorified and redeemed it. 
Most of us realise that death is in our bodies 
as soon as we assume life. The two walk side 

2 17 



INTRODUCTION 

by side during our earthly existence, fighting 
their battles just as wrong or right, con- 
science and inclination fight theirs. Yet life 
could harmonise death into a nocturne of 
beauty if we would deal with it as with other 
adjuncts of materiality; if we from the first 
acknowledged its necessity instead of re- 
belling against it ; if we looked upon life as 
the school-house of a special form of educa- 
tion, and did our level best to work for re- 
sults of what we are taught, not only here 
but hereafter. 

An active form of work, an active form of 
existence, the power to create and accom- 
plish — these death does not take from us. 
The ego is still the ego, with a purpose for 
existence, and a goal to reach. Great gifts, 
great genius, great talents, nobility of mind, 
unselfish devotion to cause or individual, 
none of these things cease from being because 
the special entity who exemplified them 
ceases from physical manifestation. Acci- 
dent, sickness, the chances of war, the hazards 

18 



INTRODUCTION 

of travel, the misfortunes of heredity, these 
may account for an early death or an im- 
perfect materiality, but the real self can 
' carry on " triumphantly and continue its 
work and evolve its destiny. 

And this is what spiritualism has shown us. 

Life and death are not two enemies but 
two intelligencies. They should agree over 
the inevitable separation which is a special 
distinction of each, not war against a per- 
fectly natural and unavoidable contingency. 
Life imprisons matter in that house of il- 
lusion which is the flesh, but death opens the 
door of spirit to liberty and freedom. 

There are a thousand and one things which 
apply to man and concern man apart from 
Church observance; from processions and 
vestments, and all the ritual and extravagant 
display of clerical supremacy. If these 
things were of real spiritual importance all 
would be well, but are they? In what sense 
do they glorify a Supreme Being who has 
created nature, and man, and set them to the 

19 



INTRODUCTION 

warfare of existence and the strange vicis- 
situdes of physical life ? They merely pander 
to priestly self-importance; to that " man set 
in a little brief authority " whose ecclesiasti- 
cal antics might well make angels weep. 

The modern Church makes religious ob- 
servance as spectacular as a theatre. It does 
not arouse reverence or create real spiritual- 
ity in the mind of any critical observer. It 
panders to the lower instincts of vanity, self- 
glorification, greed and ambition. It makes 
dogma its god and superstition its creed. It 
gives stones for bread and husks for nourish- 
ment. It has established itself upon an im- 
possible foundation and built up thereon a 
structure whose substance invites the assault 
of every critical mind. When one begins to 
think of oneself, apart from Church doctrine 
and Church teaching, one is speedily con- 
founded by the difference between fallacy 
and fact; between misrepresentation and 
actual happening; between natural law and 

spiritual interpretations. 

20 



INTRODUCTION 

Controversies have raged the world over; 
arguments have led almost to warfare. 

Theory and fact have ranged themselves 
in opposition, and fought out their battle of 
creed and tradition. Yet is mankind any the 
better? Is the truth of life or the mystery 
of death any nearer the answer to the cry 
of creation: " Why? " 

Why a world at all, and seeing there is a 
world, why so much suffering and strife ; so 
much that is hideous against so much that is 
beautiful, so much that is vile and terrible 
against so much that is pure and good? 

Two great forces rule this world as we 
know it. Two rival powers for ever strive 
for place and dominance. Good and Evil 
are the arbiters of man's fate, the creators 
of his character. Though he remained un- 
civilised, untaught, knowing nothing of re- 
ligion or of God, yet he would not escape 
these factors of destiny. With the accept- 
ance of life he is the martyr of a material 

existence that life has originated, varied, and 

21 



INTRODUCTION 

filled with obligations. He cannot but feel; 
he cannot but think ; he loves and hates and 
fears; he struggles for knowledge even if his 
existence is of the most primitive description. 
He strives to lift himself to some altitude of 
comprehension. He learns from Nature the 
secrets of change in the life forms around, 
and he learns from death the lessons of sor- 
row and of separation. 

It is the fruit of these lessons which has 
first blossomed and then ripened into the 
teaching of the spirit; which has sought and 
received answer, and let loose upon the ma- 
terial plane a flood of psychical revelation 
which will prove of colossal importance to 
the race. 

Who scoffed at the possibility of the elec- 
tric current being captured and harnessed to 
man's needs? Who ignored the mystery of 
the heavens and cried down science as a crime 
instead of a service? Who mocked at the 
possibilities of the aeroplane and submarine, 
and that last and greatest of scientific dis- 

22 



INTRODUCTION 

coveries — the control of the mysterious ether 
which proved wireless telegraphy to be a pos- 
sibility? The same bigoted, uncritical, and 
tmthinking minds who now assault the faith 
of spiritualism. Who while standing on the 
" sure " ground of Biblical teaching affirm 
and deny in the same breath that man is a 
spirit, yet can never manifest as a spirit, be- 
cause the power to sense or to witness such a 
manifestation is not given to everyone. For 
there will always be those who " have eyes 
and see not," and ears " and hear not," and 
understandings which they refuse to take out 
of the beaten track of safety. To these and 
such as these it is useless to speak. No man 
is convinced by argument of what he has ob- 
stinately set himself to discredit. 

But there is no need for the higher intelli- 
gence to vex itself on account of the ob- 
stinacy of the lower. How many followers 
had Christ? Twelve. Twelve onlv, and two 
of them were faithless. Yet by their work 
and influence they spread His teachings 

23 



INTRODUCTION 

throughout the world. In like manner may 
the little band of spiritualists spread theirs, 
saying only: " Seek for yourself; prove for 
yourself. Here is no dogma, nor creed, nor 
any arbitrary authority. We know that 
those who have passed over to another life — 
live. What is more, they do not forget, they 
are not changed. The dross is purged from 
the little streak of gold, the new life demands 
a new service." And it is that service they 
fulfil when they in still imperfect fashion try 
their best to communicate with those on the 
physical plane. The conditions are changed. 
Often they cannot be seen or heard of those 
they loved best, and thus are forced to send 
their message through another channel. The 
faculty or gift of mediumship, and all its 
variations of trance and clairvoyance are of- 
fered to these returning spirits. Not all re- 
turn, nor wish to return. But those who do 
have said it is possible, and more, have given 
satisfactory proofs that they are present to 
the inquirer. 

24 



INTRODUCTION 

All the exposition of fraud and trickery 
connected with this subject cannot alter the 
fact that it eocists, as a subject, and more, 
that it is growing of greater and greater im- 
portance, and offers itself fearlessly to 
criticism or exploitation. Science is not 
above interesting itself in the matter; psy- 
chical research is an acknowledged factor 
in demonstrating the reality of phenomena 
that it is impossible to explain by ordinary 
means. Great writers, great thinkers, poets, 
artists, even theologians, are daily giving 
their faith and their support to the truth of 
spiritualism. The coward and the scoffer 
may mock as they please ; their day will come. 
The hour of death will face their scepticism 
with such consolation as they deserve. 

Every soul must work out its own salva- 
tion. No other can take up its burden or 
suffer for its negligence once the barrier is 
down. If the Church would teach that it is 
the life men live that counts, not their faith, 
nor their professions, nor even their death- 

25 



INTRODUCTION 

bed atonements, perhaps its teachings would 
have more effect. But religion as a form, 
and even as a practice, is only concerned 
with the surface values of life; the outside 
of the cup and platter, the ceremonies and 
hypocrisies and collection boxes which have 
no real spirituality behind them. 

So it is that to-day the Church finds itself 
confronted by loss of power, loss of influence, 
the chill disfavour of scepticism and the self- 
acknowledged discords of " sounding brass 
and tinkling cymbals." 



THE TRUTH OF 
SPIRITUALISM 



The Beginning of the Spiritual, 
Movement 

To go back to the accepted re-appearance 
of those who have departed this life one need 
only turn to the Bible and its several records 
in the Old and New Testament. Following 
these records, which have Church authority 
for their truth, one can pursue the subject 
through the varying periods of history, and 
of strange and mysterious happenings. 
Their name is legion, and they fill the shelves 
of museums and libraries, private and public, 
with their strange testimony. 

The lure of the occult has always been a 
lure of fascination. The words " uncanny," 
" supernatural," " ghostly," are words of ap- 

27 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

peal to the imagination, and to that inner 
sense of wonder about the hereafter from 
which few are exempt. 

No child can resist the attraction of the 
fairy tale or the ghost story, and very few 
" grown-ups " can resist it either. It seems 
natural to believe in something apart or aside 
from mere physical knowledge and mere ma- 
terial development. 

The astrologers and astronomers of He- 
braic days had a cult of their own, and 
exercised a very powerful influence over 
mankind. Following them came a host of 
sibyls and soothsayers and magicians and 
wizards to keep up the science of the mysti- 
cal. Persecution hounded them even as at 
the present time it hounds anything called 
" spirit manifestation." The fear of what 
lies just beyond this material unsatisfactory 
existence is a fear shared by the majority of 
those living in the world. Yet even that fear 
does not still the longing to lift the curtain, 
to see beyond, to get some glimpse of the 

28 



BEGINNING OF SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT 

future. The Church does not encourage such 
pursuits. They mean playing with the 
powers of darkness, though why so sweeping 
a denunciation is supported by clerical au- 
thority its supporters cannot say. 

No hand has been strong enough to crush 
out the desire for occult knowledge, no voice 
loud enough to silence its claim to be heard. 
And so down the ages, ever nearer, closer, 
more convincing, has swept the message of 
spirit revelation. The advent of its faith was 
announced about 1847-1848 by a certain 
family in America who found the responsi- 
bilities of mediumship thrust upon them. 
The first suggestion of communication be- 
tween two worlds aroused the usual storm of 
curiosity and discredit. 

The lot of the medium is rarely a " happy 
one." He or she is used much as an instru- 
mentalist uses his piano or violin, expecting 
it to be a passive ministrant to his powers of 
sound production. These early mediums 
(the Fox family) were subjected to so much 

29 



THE TRUTH OP SPIRITUALISM 

persecution that they actually prayed to be 
delivered from such visitations. The prayer 
was answered and they were left free, but no 
sooner did that happen than they began to 
realise their loss. They missed the messages 
of " spirit f riends " ; they recognised that the 
fear and dislike of the living world were the 
great barriers to that world beyond, whose 
inhabitants had a mission to fulfil. 

In 1850 the first public exhibitions of 
mediumistic control and mediumistic power 
were given in New York, and then the storm 
broke loose which has raged with greater or 
less severity up to the present time. Of 
course the chief charge brought against spir- 
itualism is the fact of " raps," and " table- 
turning," and various trivialities of physi- 
cal attributes which shock religious folk 
most terribly. 

Is it because they imagine they will be 
transformed into glorified angelic beings the 
moment they pass into the other world? " If 
I thought I should only be brought back 



BEGINNING OF SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT 

here through a medium and have to rap at a 
table, and spell out messages through the 
alphabet I would rather — well, not survive 
at all." 

The speaker is not exceptional in that as- 
piration. The average life of man on earth is 
very far from presenting angelic attributes. 

But let me ask those who speak like this 
what is really their conception of themselves. 
Do they feel that they are capable of becom- 
ing holy, pure and seraphic beings the 
moment they cast off their earthly shell? 
Are they not the very sort of people who 
shun any thought of death as a personal 
touch, and whose religion is patented for 
them by Church ceremonies and Sunday ob- 
servance? Or are they the absolutely 
worldly, to whom the very thought of an 
af ter-lif e is abhorrent, and whose whole am- 
bition is to get the best they can of everything 
that means the physical side of existence? 

If these good folk would only rid them- 
selves of the idea that the change of death 

31 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

will mean a change of the ego which has been 
manifesting in life, they would recognise — 
reluctantly perhaps, but advisedly for their 
own sakes — that the very commonplace 
method of drawing attention to their visits is 
a proof in itself of unchanged identity. They 
wish, as it were, to call upon an earth friend; 
to attract attention. While on the earth 
plane this was done by means of a knock at 
the door. Therefore they knock. 

Again, the spirit-form cannot show itself 
visibly once it loses its earthly substance. 
The occasions when the dead have been seen 
by the living are rare occasions, and the seer 
has possessed clairvoyant faculties which en- 
ables the inner vision, so to speak, to descry 
the phantom or spirit form when it is in- 
visible to others not possessed of that faculty. 
Books that record appearances of spirit- 
forms are numerous enough for all nations 
and tongues to have access to their records, 
and it is worth remembering that there is 
no nation without some such record, thus 

82 



BEGINNING OF SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT 

giving proof of an undoubted influence from 
the world beyond on the world present. 

Why is it impossible that those we knew 
on this material plane should wish to com- 
municate with us once they wake from that 
" sleep of rest " (which is death's first gift) 
and find they are still themselves? 

Let each individual who reads these words 
sit quietly alone and ask himself, or herself, 
what they feel they are; what constitutes the 
living active personality that seems so all- 
important to itself, and by whom Death 
would be dreaded as a visitant. Let them 
recall what sleep means ; or a dream and the 
awakening. In dreams we often live through 
active torments or distresses. We wake and 
find we are still ourselves. I can find no 
authority, living or dead, who proclaims a 
change in that self. It will continue to exist 
on another plane, under other conditions, 
and it will carry with it the burden of its own 
misdeeds. No vicarious repentance can 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

atone for crime or banish the memory of 
guilty actions. 

Man makes his own hell for himself when 
he creates a living memory of his sin by a 
vicious enjoyment of sinning. 

The fact of dying is no criterion of holiness 
or even of penitence. This is not a comfort- 
ing creed, but it seems to me that the " com- 
fort ' ' of creeds is as unjustifiable as it is 
weak. Christ came to earth to " save sin- 
ners," but He told them to sin no more. If 
repentance were a real thing the sinner would 
find relief, possibly some degree of happiness, 
but we are not told he could forget his sin or 
free himself from its natural consequences. 

The Bible is a chronicle of authority that 
lends itself to the widest misconception. 
Satan can quote Scripture for his own pur- 
pose, always supposing that Satan is a per- 
sonality and not merely a pseudonym of evil. 

Man should learn his responsibility to him- 
self as soon as he recognises the fact of self- 
consciousness. He should be taught less of 

34 



BEGINNING OF SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT 

vicarious salvation and more of personal sur- 
vival. He should be made to feel that he 
cannot shake off his sins and offences, as a 
water-dog shakes off the drops after his river 
bath. If he has preferred wrong to right, 
selfishness to renunciation, greed and graft 
to generosity, crooked ways to straight paths, 
he will find their record awaiting him on the 
other side, and have to work back to peni- 
tence and possible restitution. 

The burden of guilt has been seen by the 
clairvoyant as plainly as Bunyan's vision 
showed the heavy burden on Christian's 
shoulders. Sometimes these burdened spirits 
do their utmost to return, if only for the re- 
lief of confession, but they are handicapped 
by those very conditions they have made for 
themselves. They have to sorrow and re- 
pent, and to see the fruit of their misdeeds 
working evil for others, and through much 
tribulation and remorse must they work out 
their own salvation. 

Let the Church preach that man is not 

35 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

going to get away from himself, not going 
to be " saved " from suffering and penance 
by any masses for his soul, or prayers for his 
regeneration, and it will give him an incen- 
tive to live his best, strive for the highest, and 
leave a clean record behind him as well as 
take one with him. But so long as he hears 
of his soul as a sort of plaything for pious ex- 
periments, a subject for priestly autocracy, 
so long will he scoff at any idea of the possi- 
bilities of spiritual visitation. 

Vicarious salvation has only proved itself 
the basis of irreligion. It has made man an 
irresponsible being for whom heaven and 
hell (according to Church interpretation) 
are playing a waiting game. Until he can 
stand alone and regard his soul as he re- 
gards his body, something peculiarly his 
own, he will not appreciate spiritual possi- 
bilities, nor pursue them. 

The difference between any spiritualistic 
meeting and any ordinary Church ceremony 
is that each individual recognises his spiritual 

36 



BEGINNING OF SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT 

responsibility for the one but not for the 
other. The church service is framed for 
monotonous perpetuity. One need not won- 
der that its ministers have grown weary of 
perpetually reading the same words, inton- 
ing the same prayers, and gabbling over the 
same forms of devotion. Monotony is a 
deadly foe to interest, and there is little in- 
terest in repetition. 

With a spiritualistic meeting there is al- 
ways a fresh interest. The prayers are never 
the same, nor are the addresses. The clair- 
voyant possibilities of the speaker often 
place the members of the audience in touch 
with spirit friends who have been anxious to 
communicate and who prove by appearance 
or message that they are able to do so. 

No such visitant or communicator is forced 
upon one's notice. It seems a natural hap- 
pening, perfectly possible and allowable. 
The clairvoyant may be in " trance," as it 
is called, but the descriptions are perfectly 
simple. It is as if the speaker stood in a 

87 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

room and described the dress, appearance 
and speech of the various occupants of that 
room. That those they come to cannot see 
them is a matter of no surprise to the visitor. 
For spirit recognises the bondage of flesh 
even more surely than flesh recognises the 
ethereality of spirit. It is enough that they 
can come a little closer to the earth plane, can 
find a method of transmitting message or 
recognition, and say: "I am still I. This 
side of existence is not out of touch with 
yours. We can use your mediums as you use 
the electric force surrounding the earth, the 
etheric waves which convey your wireless 
messages. Space has certain dimensions. 
We have but removed from one to another. 
We have still work to do, duties to fulfil. 
But all here is different. Beautiful, restful, 
save for those whose life has demanded un- 
rest or vicious excitements. Faith shall be 
justified of itself. You have believed in us, 
and we come to bless and help you." 

(This is one of the many messages 

38 



BEGINNING OF SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT 

given at a public meeting of the Spiritual 
Alliance Society.) 

With regard to private seances the sitter 
is wholly within the influence of the medium 
if the two are in proper agreement. Some- 
times they are not. Two positives or two 
negatives clash ; this interferes with the cur- 
rent of communication, and the medium is 
helpless. The sitter is perhaps irritated by 
the absence of what was expected, and tells 
friends " there's nothing in it." But the 
fault lies with his or her own peculiar or un- 
receptive condition. There are those who 
help and those who hinder, and sometimes a 
paid or untrustworthy medium will resort to 
fraud in order to support a reputation based 
on " successful " sittings. 

When the first wave of spiritualism broke 
over this side and sent the force and foam of 
its revelations across a sea of incredulity, 
there were not lacking many opportunists 
who seized upon a new method of making a 
livelihood, as well as earning a reputation for 

39 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

occult powers. The stimulant of curiosity 
brought hundreds to private seances or pub- 
lic manifestations, and " specialists," like the 
Davenport Brothers, Home, Husk, Eglin- 
ton, Mrs. Piper, Miss Fowler, and others 
too numerous to mention, reaped a rich har- 
vest of notoriety. 

Of course there were two sides to the ques- 
tion of possible spirit manifestations, and 
the war of believer and scoffer was waged 
with unusual acrimony. People who readily 
swallowed a " divine birth " miracle could 
not realise spirit mediumship as anything but 
trickery. The conditions enforced by re- 
search were apostrophised as means for 
fraudulent practices. Darkness, a circle, a 
table, a cabinet, all were condemned to ridi- 
cule because the proposed phenomena re- 
quired such conditions. 

They were the sort of people who would 
demand a photograph's development with- 
out chemicals or a darkened room ! Who had 
declared that to run a tramway by electricity 

40 



BEGINNING OF SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT 

or harness the waves of the air to a machine 
that should deliver and accept messages were 
schemes fit for madmen. Yet the little band 
of believers patiently pursued their investi- 
gations. The proofs they received were con- 
vincing enough to them and they could face 
ridicule with equanimity. 

As year followed year more began to be 
evolved and written on the subject of spiritu- 
alism. It was too serious and engrossing a 
subject to be disregarded, and the inquirers 
formed themselves into a solid and reverent 
body, determined to find out the truth of the 
after-life as revealed by this science or re- 
ligion or whatever they called it. 

Through turmoil of opposition and ob- 
stacles of fraud and deception the work went 
on. Even science, after long evasion, con- 
descended to investigate matters, and great 
names gave their authority to what was 
called " inquiry into survival after death/' 
The Church reluctantly acknowledged that 
spiritualism did not profess to be a substitute 

41 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

for Christianity, but rather a substantiation 
of Christ's teachings and the highest type 
of religion. 

Those in the movement who had either by 
clairvoyance, clairaudience, automatic writ- 
ing or trance mediumship received proof of 
the " living " dead they had loved on earth, 
were ready to affirm their belief and stand 
by its results. By the beginning of the pres- 
ent century scarcely a town in England but 
had its society of spiritualists, its place of 
meeting and its opportunities for investiga- 
tion of the subject. 

Gradually the idea that spiritualism is the 
key to man's eternal destiny has rooted itself 
in the minds of the seeker. The door is open- 
ing wider and yet wider. The next plane of 
life is also a plane of existence, not so differ- 
ent from the present at first. But with spir- 
itual change comes spiritual progress, and 
those who have lived for their higher selves 
on this plane will find their reward on 
the other. 

42 



BEGINNING OF SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT 

A religion that can make man feel his re- 
sponsibility both to himself and others is a 
better thing than creeds and ceremonies. He 
learns that there is no such thing as " vi- 
carious salvation/' for the soul can only save 
itself when it has learnt to know itself. A 
realisation of the true must necessarily be 
followed by a rejection of the false. 



II 

Seances — Public and Private 

When the first spark of spiritual interest 
is alight the person interested naturally re- 
quires something to keep it burning. " What 
can I do? " " Where can I go? " " How 
am I to discover whether there is any truth 
in what I have heard? " 

These questions fall naturally from the 
lips of a possible convert. Following in- 
quiry comes an equally natural desire to 
know what is a seance; why mediums are 
necessary; and if spiritual communications 
are to be depended on. 

To all these questions there is but one an- 
swer: " Try, and prove for yourself.'' 

My own first experience of " spiritual 
demonstration " goes back to quite early 
girlhood, when owing to my father's interest 
in the subject we used to try for communica- 
tions, sitting at a table with joined hands, in 

44 



SEANCES— PUBLIC AND PRIVATE 

semi-darkness, and received messages by 
means of the alphabet and " raps." As a 
family we had no object in deceiving our- 
selves, and my father used to keep a written 
record of the various communications. 

They made interesting reading at the time, 
but after I grew up and left home I did not 
pursue the subject. 

The education and experiences of life 
seemed of more importance than " circles " 
and mediums and manifestations. But the 
real interest did not die ; it only stood aside 
and waited its opportunity for renewal. At 
various times and under varying circum- 
stances I again pursued investigation. The 
' movement " so called seemed spreading 
and strengthening with years. It had its 
own public and its own publications. 
Seances were widely advertised and oppor- 
tunity for research afforded to both sceptics 
and seekers. 

Storm and stress were recurring agents in 
forcing methods and discoveries upon public 

45 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

notice ; criticism was violent ; discussion furi- 
ous. Ridicule was showered upon those who 
believed either in message or manifestation 
from the " other side." And yet spiritualism 
was not killed. Steadily and surely it worked 
for an end and a purpose. The " other side " 
became less of a mystery, more of a land of 
jhopefulness. The strange bigotry which for 
centuries had limited man to one life and 
one law of existence was passed through the 
furnace of discussion. Science and religion 
arrayed their forces against psychological 
facts that proved demonstrable, and invited 
attention, and both science and religion re- 
luctantly confessed that there did seem 
" something in it." The " it " being the prob- 
lem of spirit communication between the ex- 
isting and the next world. 

When Florence Marryat, the author, pub- 
lished her book There is No Death she had a 
public ready formed for its reception. She 
gave information of seances, spirit visits and 
communications which aroused curiosity to 

46 



SEANCES— PUBLIC AND PRIVATE 

a feverish extent. Mediums were eagerly 
sought, and many were unscrupulous enough 
to descend to fraudulent methods by way of 
securing notoriety. This brought spiritual- 
ism again into disfavour and set the storm of 
criticism raging with renewed fierceness. So 
up to the present day has it raged, swelled, 
died out and raged again. But happily for 
itself the movement has become strong 
enough to stand on its own merits. The 
merits not of phenomena, or possible trick- 
ery, but of scientific proof that it is a real 
existing bridge of communication between 
the so-called dead and the ostensible living. 
Possibly no exposition of spiritualism as a 
comfort and a truth has been greater than 
that afforded by the calamity of this cruel 
war, for the terrible griefs and losses it has 
occasioned seemed to advocate any possible 
means of consolation. 

The means answered to the demand. 
Thousands of mourners and inquirers threw 
off the reticence of past days and stepped 

47 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

boldly into the limelight of public service. 
For confession of belief in an unpopular 
subject is a public service. It is also one that 
needs the bravery of such men as Sir Oliver 
Lodge, and Sir Conan Doyle, and Sir Wil- 
liam Crookes to attest and affirm by warrant 
of personal research and personal communi- 
cation. But alas! the higher the authority 
the greater merit in stoning it. And lesser 
minds are always ready to do that. 

What Sir Oliver Lodge has explained of 
the " passing on " of his son Raymond, killed 
in the war at the early age of twenty-six, has 
been a relief and consolation to innumerable 
other mothers and fathers of heroic sons; 
that crowd of young and martyred heroes 
whose sacrifices were so glorious, and whose 
lives should be deathless in the memory of a 
grateful country. And these revelations of 
the renowned scientist in no way differ from 
experiences produced by the means of other 
mediums, or the visions of other clairvoyants. 

Usually at a public seance the audience sit 

48 



SEANCES— PUBLIC AND PRIVATE 

in a circle. The room is darkened, not alto- 
gether dark, but shaded to a certain dimness 
on account of required " conditions." If 
those who attend begin to inquire " Why — 
conditions? " they are much in the same posi- 
tion as the negative and positive forces of 
electricity, which might demand " Why 
negative and why positive? " 

"Why do we live? Why do we think? 
Why do certain things please and certain 
things terrify? " 

Sufficient for present purpose to say that 
all seances are subject to certain conditions 
which are dictated to the medium by the spe- 
cial guide or control who is responsible for 
the manifestations. Why there should be a 
special guide or control is due to the fact that 
the medium is used for the transmission of 
power, just as any implement of mechanism 
is used by the operator. She (or he) cannot 
be left to the random control of untrust- 
worthy forces while in " trance," and trance 
is usually the condition into which conscious- 

4 49 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

ness passes during the time of demonstration. 
There is nothing alarming about the 
" trance condition." It is a sort of sleep, at- 
tended by passive submission to another form 
of energy. While the medium is in this sleep 
her " control " speaks and acts for her, and 
gives both description and message from the 
visiting " spirits," who seem only too anxious 
to use this method of communication. Is 
there any reason why they should not use it 
if they have found themselves shot, as it were, 
into another world, another form of exist- 
ence, while still keenly and vigorously at- 
tached to this? According to the messages 
of Raymond, there are crowds on the " other 
side " longing and trying to get a message 
through to the world they have left ; suffer- 
ing perhaps from remorse, or regret, or love 
forfeited and foregone ; separation they had 
not desired. And if this is so the need of 
mediums is amplified, for strange as it may 
seem, the nearest and dearest of earthly loves 
may be quite insensible to the spiritual marri- 

50 



SEANCES— PUBLIC AND PRIVATE 

festation of the loved one who has passed 
from the earth plane. 

Does not Raymond tell of standing by his 
favourite brother's side, tapping him on the 
shoulder, as was a habit while on earth, and 
yet that brother was perfectly unconscious 
of touch or presence? 

So when the sceptic asks " why dark- 
ness? " or " why mediums? " the answer is 
that only certain psychic powers are possible 
for use, or demonstration, and those who pos- 
sess these powers offer themselves — some- 
times unconsciously — to the world beyond 
this world, and those of its inhabitants who 
are anxious to prove the continuation of ex- 
istence manifest through this mediumship. 

At a public seance, then, the entranced 
medium is used by the various visitants, 
who speak to the inquirers through the 
medium's " control." Sometimes an accu- 
rate description is given of the communicat- 
ing personality, built up in earth form for 
purpose of recognition. Sometimes only a 

51 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

name or a message comes through. Some- 
times out of twenty or thirty people only 
half-a-dozen may receive any personal com- 
munication. The remaining number then get 
offended, and declare: "It's all nonsense, 
there's nothing in it." For no passion is 
stronger than self-interest, and to be over- 
looked when bent on investigation is a per- 
sonal affront to the investigator. 

The antagonist and the scoffer can hardly 
expect to enter into the required condition. 
An open mind, a reasonable curiosity, these 
offer no discordant elements. ' Ask, and ye 
shall receive " is typical of more than a text 
of selfishness. Spiritual bread is for spiritual 
hunger. Those already replete with scepti- 
cism, obstinacy, and self-conviction are not 
troubled by such hunger. The banquet has 
no attraction for them. 



Ill 

Manifestations 

This word, with the dictionary signifi- 
cance of disclosure, exhibition, revelation, is 
used by spiritualists and mediums to illus- 
trate the various happenings of a seance. In 
the very early beginnings of spiritualistic 
discoveries the " manifestations," as in the 
case of the Fox family, took the shape of 
knocks, raps and incessant noises for which 
no physical explanation seemed possible. 
The theory of " earth-bound " spirits at- 
tached still to a material world had not then 
received attention. When it did, it was ruth- 
lessly classed as diablerie; power of the evil 
one ; something to be shunned and avoided. 
But mankind has learnt that to avoid an 
unpleasant subject does not eliminate that 
subject from its unpleasant existence. 

Nothing, whether of good or evil, is with- 
out reason for such a condition. A lie lives, 

53 



THE TRUTH OP SPIRITUALISM 

not by reason of its necessity but by the very 
malevolence which has created and prompted 
its first incarnation. The two sides of the 
question of spiritualism are those of affirma- 
tion and denial. On the one hand stand those 
who insist upon the truth of psychic power 
and psychic manifestation. On the other, 
those who deny both as " impossible/' 
" spookish " or " dangerous." 

It is dangerous to handle the live wire; 
to tamper with the electric force ; to investi- 
gate the secrets of nature; but lacking the 
courage to do these things, where would man- 
kind be now? How could we have girdled 
the earth and sounded the depths of the sea? 
How chained the forces of the electric cur- 
rent ? How learnt to use the air as a mode of 
progression, the etheric waves as transmitters 
of unspoken words? Nature is as an open 
book to the seeker; a closed and stub- 
born holder of secrets to the bigoted 
and superstitious. 

The demonstrative power of those forces 

54 



MANIFESTATIONS 

which had made their existence known on the 
physical plane was a power seriously ham- 
pered by earth conditions. 

Although they could see, they remained 
unseen; although they seemed to speak their 
voices were inaudible. The world they had 
left behind was not a world whose conditions 
assimilated with that to which they had 
been transferred. 

The religious fallacies which had assumed 
that translation to " spirit life " meant a sud- 
den inrush of wisdom, all-seeingness, and an 
immediate knowledge of the Godhead 
proved utterly wrong. The j ourney heaven- 
ward had only commenced; it was 
not accomplished. 

This is where the Church has made such 
a grievous error. It asserts that death is 
followed by an ascension into spiritual 
realms, or plunges its victims into the horrors 
of purgatory or hell-fire! Spiritualism 
teaches that nothing of the sort occurs. The 
soul of man is still the man. Only instead of 

55 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

material bondage it has been granted spir- 
itual revelation. But the revelation may not 
be of a sort to please its discoverer. For as 
in a mirror he sees himself ! , and recognises 
the ills he has wrought or the good he has 
tried to accomplish. He discovers, too, that 
he must still work ; still exist ; and that only 
by his own efforts can he attain a higher de- 
gree of spirituality. 

With the first discovery of life-continu- 
ance is it unlikely that the entity might wish 
to return to the physical plane and by some 
means communicate its presence or its 
powers? And supposing such permission 
were granted (as in the case of Adelaide 
Procter's beautiful poem), what would this 
entity be likely to do to impress those it 
visited? Give or transmit some message 
of comfort. 

Death has been surrounded with so much 
of terror that a reappearance (in the astral 
form, common to all) would only create 
alarm, and produce the usual furore of dis- 

56 



MANIFESTATIONS 

belief and scoffing. The entity has learnt 
this in the physical world and sadly applies 
the knowledge to present conditions. But 
there are many entities, stubborn, wicked, 
passionate, whose desire to manifest some- 
thing might enable them to produce phe- 
nomena such as many of us have lamented 
at a spiritualistic seance ; might enable them 
to use the medium for an unworthy purpose, 
and bring about those sounds and appear- 
ances which have puzzled inquirers. That 
much-abused " dark cabinet " with its con- 
cealed mysteries does not impress the true 
spiritual seeker. In fact he regards such 
demonstrations with aversion. Phenomena 
are lamentably familiar to all engaged in 
psychical research, but it rather humiliates 
than convinces. Having seen much of table- 
turning, tambourine-playing, rope-tying, 
and materialisation, I admit that such things 
are possible, but in no way important. 

They are of interest to the curious but not 
to the earnest seeker. They are a proof of 

57 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

the earth-bound forces whose release from 
physical conditions has not elevated what 
was spiritually deadened by an earth life. 
They are a proof of possible communication; 
they are — in a way — as useful as the vision of 
seer and sage were useful in olden times, but 
to those who are seriously investigating the 
subject of the after-life they are anathema. 
They are simply an outcome of the mechan- 
ism produced in that lower workshop of 
psychic existence which has exacted a life 
tribute and is using it for its own ends. But 
it is no use to say they are impossible, or are 
proofs of fraud. For they have been tested 
again and again, though to what purpose 
they exist and why they attach supernormal 
importance to themselves is for those who 
encourage them to say. 



IV 

Materialisation 

This phenomenon deserves special men- 
tion and forms one of the greatest attractions 
of the seance room. 

It really means that during the state of 
trance-mediumship various forms and shapes 
build themselves up into visible significance, 
and show themselves to the circle as capable 
of movement and speech and recognition. 

How is it done? asks the sceptical inquirer. 

The medium will tell you that during 
trance-unconsciousness the control permits 
that unconsciousness to be used by the spirit 
who desires to manifest. From the side of 
the medium a thin, slender cord is drawn; 
this seems to take to itself a certain power 
of radiating ethereality, and gradually builds 
up the shadowy yet distinct appearance of a 
visible being. 

The process of this " building up " does 
not take place before the eyes of the circle, 

59 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

but within the cabinet or behind the screen 
which conceals the entranced medium. 

Of course this very secrecy and aloofness 
lend themselves to any interpretation of 
fraud on the part of the medium. It is a 
rather uncanny business at its best, and after 
witnessing many such exhibitions one is re- 
duced to that frame of mind which exclaims 
cut bono? and throws aside further research. 

I have seen materialised forms at public 
seances, and I have seen them produced in 
my own room and by an unprofessional me- 
dium under test conditions. Usually the 
spirit form showed itself as some Eastern 
personality, white-robed, turbaned, with 
flowing beard, and of majestic presence. I 
always felt it would be quite easy for the 
medium to drape and disguise himself and 
then appear in front of the cabinet, for the 
room would be in almost total darkness, and 
the " circle " were requested to sing or talk 
during the period of transformation. 

No message was ever delivered of any im- 

60 



MATERIALISATION 

portance, nor could I see that the phenomena 
produced were in any way remarkable 
enough to excuse the apparent suffering and 
exhaustion of the medium. 

I have been told that the class of medium 
used for spiritual materialisation are never 
long-lived, and rarely enjoy good health. 

I am not surprised. The condition of 
trance may be harmless, even as hypnotism is 
harmless, but excessive use of the faculty 
must have a bad effect upon the nervous sys- 
tem and occasion organic disturbance. 

Having investigated the " material " side 
of the subject both at public and private 
seances, I came to the conclusion that there 
was something not only unsatisfactory, but 
humiliating, about these exhibitions. I did 
not want to distrust the professional medium, 
but, on the other hand, I could get no satis- 
factory explanation of the why and where- 
fore of these powers ; or of their use as ar- 
rayed against their danger. 

61 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

Of course public seances are paid for, but 
the circle is usually small and the fees are 
not high enough to make even a professional 
trickster rich. Human vanity and that 
quaint egoism which loves to prank and 
play before its fellow-men may be re- 
sponsible for such exhibitions, but to the 
serious-minded they only surround the sub- 
ject with confusion. 

The real use of authentic materialisation 
would be to prove that theory of continu- 
ance of mental and moral attributes dis- 
tinguishing the manifesting entity on the 
other side, as it may have distinguished him 
on this ; to show that man does not change, 
he continues. 

When he has learnt his lesson, when atone- 
ment and realisation have built up another 
temple of life on the foundation stone of the 
past (or of many pasts), then will fuller 
knowledge mean higher power and the spirit 
grow and increase in wisdom and in stature 
of a purer faith. 



MATERIALISATION 

A form of " manifestation " lately fav- 
oured and encouraged is that of the spirit 
voice rendered audible and giving co- 
herent messages through " the trumpet," as 
it is called. 

The said trumpet is a thin cylinder or 
cone about two feet in height; hollow and 
without any sort of mechanism. 

This trumpet is placed on the floor; the 
circle sit around; the medium takes her place, 
the room is darkened, and after an interval of 
singing or talking (in order to produce cer- 
tain vibrations) a voice will proceed from 
out the trumpet and announce itself as that 
of the medium's control. 

The medium in this instances does not go 
into trance conditions, but talks and listens 
to the " voices," as do the rest of the audi- 
ence. The " control " having announced its 
personality and greeted the circle in friendly 
fashion proceeds to inform them that various 
" spirit friends " are present and are desir- 
ous of communicating. In order to do this 



THE TRUTH OP SPIRITUALISM 

the trumpet moves round the circle until it 
reaches the side of the person for whom it 
has the message. It then knocks softly 
against their knees, and from out of it pro- 
ceeds a voice announcing the identity of the 
speaker and its readiness to talk with them, 
or advise them, or give proof of identity. 

All this seems very bald, and possibly ir- 
reverent, taken in conjunction with the sor- 
rows of bereavement. But to those who are 
seeking for a conviction of identity or a mes- 
sage that may lighten their dark hours it has 
proved a real source of comfort. More than 
that, these spirit voices have given informa- 
tion as to obligations and duties left unper- 
formed while on earth; have asked for 
prayers and memory, and besought the 
mourner not to grieve over a " temporary ' 
separation. Ileal names of the departed have 
been announced, and sometimes quite a con- 
versation has ensued. 

" A trick," says the sceptic. " It is the 
mediutai speaking, and the medium takes 

64 



MATERIALISATION 

good care to know the private affairs of those 
joining the circle. The messages are ' faked ' 
for the occasion. Deception is easy, and ven- 
triloquism may account for the different 
voices that seem to come out of the trumpet." 
Very well. If the sceptic is not to be con- 
vinced, nobody troubles. He is at liberty to 
investigate and disbelieve and theorise to his 
heart's content. But when one of the sitters 
receives a message, or is informed of the pres- 
ence of someone whom he or she alone knows, 
when proof is given that that message or that 
speaker is actually a voice or visitant from 
the spirit world, then it takes more than the 
sceptic's sneer or the scoffer's ridicule to alter 
such conviction. 

The trumpet seances which I have at- 
tended have always been at some private 
house where trickery or fraud was almost 
impossible. The theory of ventriloquism has 
often been raised by members of the circle 
bent on inquiry and refusing to be convinced. 
But even arguing that the medium resorted 

5 65 



THE TRUTHIOF SPIRITUALISM 

to such a trick, it would not enable her to give 
authentic names, or messages, or proof of the 
spirit visitant's presence. 

To the oft-asked question, " Why should 
they want to come back once they have 
passed over? " we can only assume that the 
change of address is not conclusive evidence 
of change of identity; that the attraction of 
earth is strong enough to draw them within 
its circumference, and once there to make 
them try any reasonable method of getting 
into communication with friends they have 
left behind. And once more I repeat that 
such desire and such effort are the strongest 
proofs of identity. Their very simplicity, or, 
as the scoffer calls it, " stupidity/' shows that 
the ego is unchanged. It is, as yet, no wiser 
or better informed than when it left the earth 
plane. It has found itself in a new habita- 
tion, or, as I said before, with a " change of 
address," but it knows itself as it knew itself 
before the change, and has to reconcile that 
self to a new form of life gradually and not 

66 



MATERIALISATION 

always gladly. There are very sorrowful 
spirits and very regretful ones who some- 
times return, but they had their chances on 
earth, and the burden of regret has to lessen 
itself of selfish failings ere it can know peace. 

Time, as it exists on earth, has no meaning 
on the " other side." Man has ample oppor- 
tunity to repent and atone, and no one but 
has work to do, or a mission to accomplish. 

This has been told and written and im- 
pressed again and again. The simple, boyish 
revelations of " Raymond " are only an echo 
of thousands of other revelations, messages, 
and confidences through the opening door. 
It is not quite open yet, but the aperture is 
widening. In any case so much evidence is 
now procurable that few who give serious 
attention to the subject can help being con- 
vinced that there is " something " in it. That 
spiritualism is not a cult for eccentrics and 
tricksters, but a real, tangible, holy thing. 

There is no need to pursue it by phenom- 
enal methods. No need to take what one feels 

67 



THE TRUTH OF SPHIITUALISM 

is sacred to the chances of a public seance, or 
even the uncertainties of a private one. The 
ordinary meetings of the Spiritual Alliance 
Society are as reverent and regularly 
attended as any church service. Nothing 
disturbing or illusionary is attached to 
these meetings. 

The speakers may speak in trance con- 
dition; they often do; but the addresses are 
so fervent, so heart-stirring, and, above all, 
so rationally comforting that no one, how- 
ever bigoted or " Churchy," could possibly 
take offence at them. In like manner the 
prayers are no formal parrot-like repetition, 
for ever the same the year through, but im- 
provised inspiring expressions of the holiest 
thoughts and the purest ideals. 

Believer or sceptic cannot but be assured 
that this place of meeting and association is 
holy ground, and that absence of all cere- 
monial is but an incentive to a higher form 
of spirituality. 



Automatic Writings 
Automatic writing is a peculiar form of 
mediumship, and, as far as has been discov- 
ered, a more dignified and reliable one than 
" raps " or phenomenal disturbance. 

Granting that the personal entity finds 
itself in another state of existence, not 
through vicissitudes of age, or sickness, but 
by accident, or even crime, would not its 
thoughts at once revert to the earth it had 
left, the people it had known? With such 
thoughts it is not unnatural to suppose an 
intense desire to inform these people of its 
continued existence. Attending this desire 
might come a sudden realisation of possi- 
bility. The power of thought on the " other 
side " seems as magnetic as the power of will. 
The entity who has " passed over " suddenly 
finds it is back on earth, and in that special 
home or presence where it desired to be. But 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

alas! circumstances are irrevocably changed. 
The spiritual form has no substance or visi- 
bility ; the spiritual voice cannot proclaim its 
presence. It may touch and speak, but all 
in vain. Sadly enough it has to learn of a 
psychic body as once it had to acknowledge a 
physical one. 

Let us figure to ourselves such a person- 
ality returning whence it came, saying to 
itself: " It is no use. They cannot see, or 
hear, or be convinced." Saying this, and 
recognising this, and then suddenly hearing 
from some spirit friend that the reason of 
non-communication might rest with the sub- 
ject, not the seeker. " If you adopt the right 
methods you can get your message through ; 
come with me and I will show you the way." 

Here we have the mystery as well as the 
reason for those " guides " and " controls " 
without whose aid no mediumship is satis- 
factory. The spirit who has learnt the way 
teaches the stranger to find it also. But as 
mediums are few and rare, and spirits num- 

70 



AUTOMATIC WRITINGS 

berless, it is only natural to suppose that com- 
munications are difficult to " get through." 

The power of affecting a physical person- 
ality on the " other side " is attended by simi- 
lar difficulties as the power of affecting a 
spiritual one on this. 

There seems to be a popular belief that to 
" spirit " all is possible once it has passed 
into the region of the spirit world. It should 
at once be able to see, hear, know and experi- 
ence all the mysteries of the spiritual king- 
dom. But this is not so. The spirit does not 
become all-wise, all-perfect, or all-powerful. 
It remains, at first, very much as it was on 
earth, unless while on earth it has developed 
the spiritual side of being to an extent that 
leaves it indifferent to any memory or affec- 
tion of the material plane it has left. 

There have been personalities so pure- 
minded and so almost sinless that the " pass- 
ing over " would mean only a higher grade 
of spirituality, but such natures are rare. 

The generality of spirit passengers are 

71 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

not lost to memory ; are often troubled by the 
sorrow that follows their exit, and long for 
some means of assuring those they have left 
that they are still unchanged. 

One such means has proved to be what is 
called automatic writing. Sometimes the dis- 
covery has been purely accidental. Sitting 
at a table and with pen or pencil in hand, 
idly waiting for some idea, or subject for a 
letter, the chosen agent suddenly finds her- 
self (or himself) writing rapidly and con- 
tinuously without conscious volition. When 
read the communication proves to be some 
message from a known or unknown person 
who has passed over to the world beyond. 
Or again the writer is conscious of an uncon- 
trollable desire to seize writing materials and 
await results. The pencil may remain sta- 
tionary for a few moments, or perhaps only 
a few seconds. Then it proceeds to fly over 
the paper at a rapid rate, transcribing words 
and sentences of which the writer is ignorant. 
Usually the name of the impelling scribe is 

72 



AUTOMATIC WRITINGS 

given. The messages are often long, lucid, 
and personal. They serve to convince the 
physical transmitter that the communicating 
source is someone known and loved, who has 
been allowed this means of communication. 

In this method there is no need of a me- 
dium. The spirit force operates for itself on 
the submissive force it has discovered. It 
seeks to convey through a passive agent what 
it cannot write or voice for itself. 

The charge brought against such a dis- 
covery as power of automatic writing is, of 
course, the usual one of self-deception. " The 
writer does it unconsciously." (As if any- 
one on the physical plane can be actively un- 
conscious.) " It is quite impossible any de- 
parted spirit could return and use such 
a means of communication.'' That is as 
may be. 

It has been my good fortune to witness a 
great deal of this automatic power. I have 
also received personal messages through the 
unconscious scribe. I have had names given 

73 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

and information retailed that were quite 
private, rapidly written and handed to me by 
the writer. (A curious feature of this phe- 
nomenon is that the handwriting is often ex- 
traordinarily like, if not identical with, that 
of the personality we have known. ) 

The subject used as a transcriber is often 
quite commonplace and not conscious of any 
psychic powers. The feeling seems an im- 
pulse not of self-will but of some authorita- 
tive agency apart from oneself. Just as on 
this earth plane we say to a friend, " Here, 
come, I want you," and dictate the service re- 
quired, so does this mysterious force call and 
use the obedient subject of its desires. 

Many a family circle has rejoiced at the 
discovery of this power in some one member 
of the household. Many a message of com- 
fort has been received of which the outside 
world knows nothing. In rare instances the 
communications are allowed to be published, 
if they are of a general or instructive nature. 
In others the writer is warned to keep both 

74 



AUTOMATIC WRITINGS 

the power and the information secret. They 
seem holy as prayer is holy, as faith is holy. 
The scorn of the scoffer is hateful as it 
is f atuous. 

Automatic writing is not to be confounded 
with spirit writing. That has been done again 
and again at private seances. The method is 
as follows. 

The medium places a sort of double slate 
upon the table. It is shown to the sitter as 
perfectly clean. He is even permitted to use 
a damp sponge and pass it over the surface. 
This slate possesses a hinge and a lock. The 
small piece of pencil is put between two 
halves as it were. The slate is closed, locked 
and the key placed upon the table, or, if pre- 
ferred, given to the sitter. The medium then 
holds the locked slate under the table and 
after a few moments withdraws it. The sitter 
unlocks it and finds the inner surface covered 
with writing. 

Another method is that the sitter is told 

75 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

to write a question to which he desires an 
answer. He writes it himself, unseen by the 
medium, locks the slate and hands it back. 

The same thing occurs. A brief interval, 
the unlocking of the slate, and there is the 
answer, written under the question. 

How is it done? 

There is no darkness. The medium's right 
hand is on the table. Could he with the left 
only unlock, write, and relock the slate with- 
out sound or movement being discoverable 
by the sitter? 

But still this and similar feats only come 
under the heading of " phenomenal happen- 
ings/' They may be the work of a set of 
" elementals " so called. Beings who are 
strongly attached to the earth plane. Who 
were of no very high order of intelligence 
while there. Who want to manifest some 
power, if only in trickery or mischief. Beings 
who owe a personal grudge to some order of 
humanity and find that raps and noises and 
the flinging of missiles and disturbance of 

76 



AUTOMATIC WRITINGS 

furniture is one way of disconcerting them. 
" Evil spirits " if you will, but still spirits, 
and bringing proof not only of continuation 
of active life, but of possible malice ; of a vin- 
dictive memory determined on reprisals. 

The true spiritualist has no use for such 
manifestations. He knows they are possible 
of accomplishment, are eagerly sought and 
criticised, but his aspirations go forth to that 
higher plane where deeper truths are mani- 
fested. As much as it is possible to learn of 
such truths he sets himself to learn, knowing 
that death is but a transition, and that the 
personality he has known and loved is only 
as it were in another country to which he him- 
self is progressing. 

A natural interest in that country, in what 
it means of duty, memory, usefulness is 
surely allowable. The spiritualist seeks such 
things here, while the materialist says: " Suf- 
ficient the day to the evil thereof." For to 
the materialist death is an evil; a thing to 
dread and avoid. What comes after physical 

77 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

decease is of less interest to him than the 
fact of such decease, the knowledge that it 
puts an extinguisher upon the flame of life, 
and sets at naught all schemes, hopes and 
ambitions connected with life. 

When the fact of automatic writing is first 
discovered it is rather puzzling. The writer 
is not quite sure whether the words are not 
of personal invention, although they have no 
apparent personal meaning. The impulse to 
write at some unexpected moment is the only 
thing the scribe cannot account for. Gradu- 
ally the impulse becomes a habit and the com- 
munications a dictated formula. Sometimes 
one special agent announces itself and con- 
tinues to come and use the hand of the writer 
as a method of transmitting messages. 

Recently a book of experiences entitled 
Letters from a Living Dead Man has made 
some stir in the world of psychic research. 
The letters are all from the " other side " and 
written down by the author as given. They 
form an interesting record of what happens 

78 



AUTOMATIC WRITINGS 

on that " other side " when the spirit entity 
goes thither. The entity uses his automatic 
subject as a means for informing those he has 
left behind of his personal experience and 
condition. Not only do these letters deal 
with the war, with the sudden translation 
from life to death, but also with the laws of 
nature on another plane, and the possibilities 
of spirit communion. 

Like Raymond, the ego of the communi- 
cator is in no way changed. It is perfectly 
recognisable and perfectly simple. It relates 
what happened and is happening around it, 
and is essentially grateful for the power of 
communicating what it has learnt of 
the great mystery. 

There are plenty of books and authorities 
on this matter. Anyone interested can con- 
sult them or criticise them as they please. If 
they prove nothing else, I once more repeat 
that they prove that death is not extinction 
of the personality we have known and loved ; 
that mental activity continues on the " other 
side " ; that the physical body is not necessary 

79 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

for communication so long as a chain of 
mental telepathy exists between spirit 
and matter. 

Once earthly limitations are dispensed 
with the spiritual force is conscious of new 
powers, new possibilities. There seems no 
location in space nor any hampering methods 
of transit. Thought is both messenger and 
locomotive. To wish for a presence is to be 
with it, and the joy of finding a means of 
communication is a joy that sets all earth's 
grim prejudices at defiance. 

There is no death in the sense of irrev- 
ocable loss ; of dissolution ; of self -surrender. 
There is a passing-on, a continuance, a pur- 
pose. And the spiritual world is coming 
nearer and the ways and methods of com- 
munication are becoming plainer. 

The powers of evil will be fought on other 
ground than that of slaughter and barbarity. 
The body may yet be made the servant of 
the soul, not the slave of its physical elements 
in a world of physical bondage. 



VI 

Explanation and Demonstration 
Nothing worth knowing or discovering 
has ever yet found acknowledgment with- 
out opposition. Humanity, though con- 
demned to merely physical conditions, is not 
all on the same level of intelligence. There 
are higher and lower grades; there are 
powers, gifts, possibilities known to the few, 
ignored by the many. It was only in the 
early part of the century that the Western 
mind at last interested itself in the doctrine 
of reincarnation long held by the Eastern; 
the theory that man lives and relives his earth 
lif e in many varying forms of personality. 

How does this theory (or fact) fit in with 
the evidences of spiritualism? If the spirits 
of the dead are giving proof of continued 
existence on another plane, how can the ego 
they represent be also another ego who dates 

6 81 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

existence back to the times of the Pharaohs, 
or the nativity of Buddha the Enlightened? 

The answer seems to me a very simple one. 

All spirits do not manifest or desire to 
manifest. Out of the millions upon millions 
who have passed from physical life how triv- 
ially few have ever troubled to give proof of 
continued existence. The reason for this is 
that they have learnt their lesson; learnt the 
meaning of life, of physical obligation, of 
duty, of love, of service. When death de- 
livers them from a repeated, not a primitive, 
bondage, they are conscious of new powers ; 
an uplif tment of psychic force ; a desire for 
more glorious and spiritual experiences. 
They know too that the world they have left 
is bound to accomplish its destiny, as in every 
age and under every condition mankind has 
striven to accomplish his. 

The spirit that has proved itself a worthy 
custodian of past knowledge has no desire 
to return to the bondage of physical life, 
and being fully conscious that ties of love 

82 



EXPLANATION AND DEMONSTRATION 

and sympathy are merely loosened, and will 
never be severed, there seems no reason for 
further demonstration. 

" In my Father's house are many man- 
sions " is a text of higher meaning than the 
Salvation Army or the Evangelical Church 
allow for it. For " mansions " read spirit- 
ual conditions; an ascent to ever greater 
saintship; a spiritual resting-place ere the 
summons to " go forth " is repeated. Sec- 
tarian distinctions mean nothing. The Su- 
preme Ruler and Giver of Life is unaffected 
by anything but the reverent sincerity of 
worship. Therefore spirits of a high order 
do not wish to return to the material plane, or 
even to offer proof of existence because al- 
ready they know what to others is hidden. 

Thus it is that demonstrations of a mys- 
terious power from the other side are left to 
an order of spiritual intelligence more con- 
cerned with what it has left than what it has 
reached ; earth-bound and attached to physi- 
cal joys and physical existence, and therefore 

83 



THE TRUTH OP SPIRITUALISM 

anxious for a renewal of acquaintanceship, 
so to say, with those it has left behind. 

The approach to the spiritual plane is not 
so jealously veiled but that it may be 
glimpsed — or, as clairvoyants say, " sensed ' : 
— from the material. A bridge of communi- 
cation does actually extend between the two, 
though not all may cross, still less perceive it. 
But this bridge stretches forward and up- 
ward to such grand and unimaginable realms 
of enlightenment that few dare pursue its 
seemingly endless expansion. 

(This information has been given through 
mediumistic influence and also by auto- 
matic writing.) 

Some spirits are allowed, even sent forth, 
to demonstrate their mission, and to prove to 
the reverent-minded and earnest seeker the 
truth of spiritual knowledge. 

The recognition of the theory of evolution 
has abolished many myths and much bigoted 
ignorance. Even the Church, once Darwin's 
strongest opposer, has reluctantly stepped 

84 



EXPLANATION AND DEMONSTRATION 

down from its seven-days theory of creation 
and its passionate upholding of " miracle " 
to the level of scientific proof. 

There is purpose in all Nature; in its 
works, its developments, its mysteries and 
its revelations. 

The object of religion seems to have been 
to sever man from Nature; to educate his 
spiritual possibilities as against his normal 
tendencies. In plain words, to thrash out the 
animal instead of to train it. " Cast forth," 
" abolish," " hate sin "; " trample evil under 
foot " — such are the mandates of the Church. 
How far has it succeeded in implanting them 
either by example or declamation? 

Most of those who have been attracted to 
the study of spiritualism by so-called " won- 
ders " soon weary of such puerile exhibitions. 

Florence Marryat wrote a book full of her 
own experiences. Spirit forms appeared 
from dark cabinets, moved furniture, played 
on musical instruments (very badly), flung 

85 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

freshly gathered flowers into the laps of the 
sitters, rapped out messages, gave their 
names and identities, and in fact proved very 
disturbing associates up to the period of her 
death. There are numberless records of such 
happenings. Undoubtedly they have been 
and are given. But it is no wonder that the 
sceptic asks: " What use are they? " " What 
do you learn? " " What do they tell you of 
the next world? " 

From personal experience I can only an- 
swer they tell you nothing of the " next " 
world — because they possess no more knowl- 
edge of it than they did on this earth plane. 

Such an answer may be a shock to the in- 
quirer, for that belief in immediate spirit 
transformation dies hard. Every tombstone 
inscription is proof of that; every devotional 
hymn and obituary sermon. So we are con- 
fronted by the opinion that the manifesta- 
tions received are not from the spirit world 
because spirits become glorified and won- 
drous beings the moment they pass on to the 

86 



EXPLANATION AND DEMONSTRATION 

next plane, or else that the force producing 
such manifestations must be evil. 

For evil read " commonplace " and per- 
haps the problem is less puzzling. 

What the manifesting power can do, it 
does; what it can reveal, it reveals; but 
whether through alphabetical raps, auto- 
matic writing or materialisation into visible 
form, the information given is only the lim- 
ited information allowed to a special form 
of demonstration. 

To those who find any comfort in such ex- 
hibitions, apart from their wonderfulness, 
the seance door is always open. They can 
go as often as they pay. They can have John 
King, a one-time pirate, thunder forth his 
greetings. They can receive the blessings 
of a cardinal or the prophetic warnings of a 
Napoleon. They can hear Shakespeare and 
Milton and other literary lions roar gently 
and vaguely of their " happy " condition. 
But if from these great authorities they re- 
ceive any special information as to their pres- 

87 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

ent life and habitation they will be more 
fortunate than I have been. 

The explanation of what I call " common- 
place " communications is also that of faulty 
or commonplace mediumship. It is an extra- 
ordinary fact that psychic powers are almost 
always displayed by a very low order 
of intelligence. 

In the present day a whole stream of de- 
moniacal manifestation has been let loose 
upon puzzled villagers in Wales and Somer- 
set and Ireland. These unaccountable raps 
and disturbances, trance conditions and phe- 
nomenal exploits are retailed as " spiritual ' 
facts by the eager journalist or the scoffing 
leader-writer. They are nothing of the sort. 
They are a display of " elemental " existence 
such as we do not readily recognise, for it has 
no place in the Burial Service or the pulpit. 
It is a confutation of the one lif e, one death 
theory, which must ere long give way to the 
more sensible acknowledgment of " one 
form of life, one form of death." 



EXPLANATION AND DEMONSTRATION 

Out of evil good cannot come. Out of an 
unspiritual life no pure-winged seraph 
springs into immortal glory. Such immor- 
tality and such glory are for the pure in 
heart; the spiritual pilgrim as he progresses 
towards the Temple of Destiny. 

I have had long conversations with me- 
diums respecting their power of clairvoyance 
and their ability to act as interpreters for 
spiritual visitants. They have told me their 
power comes to them quite unexpectedly. 
They find themselves able to go into trance 
condition when they wish to do so. They are 
then in a state of unconsciousness to the 
world around, and at the mercy of the special 
guide or " control " who has elected to use 
them. Through this power they perceive 
clairvoyantly what they describe. The scenes 
and persons are as visible as if on earth. This 
" control " is often spoken of as " guardian 
angel," " spirit guide " or the " helper." In 
any case no medium seems able to exercise 

89 



THE TRUTH OF SPffilTUALISM 

his or her powers independently of this mys- 
terious assistance. Once in trance (which is 
seemingly a deep, quiet sleep) the medium 
gives out such information as her spirit guide 
relates to her. The guide tells of the vari- 
ous communicating personalities, describes 
their appearance, conveys their messages, 
and, so to say, puts them en rapport with the 
inquirer. The said inquirer can ask any ques- 
tions he pleases. The " control " speaks 
through the medium, using her voice and 
exacting her energy. 

Why some people should have this power 
and others not is impossible to explain. But 
mediums are not many, especially those 
whose record is absolutely trustworthy. Sir 
Oliver Lodge explains this subject in his 
book Raymond and also in The Survival of 
Man. He was fortunate enough to secure a 
very excellent medium for his investigations, 
and whatever the reader may think of 
" Feda " (the control), she seemed to give 
very full and very accurate information re- 

90 



EXPLANATION AND DEMONSTRATION 

specting the boy whose early death had 
been so terrible a blow to his mother and 
family generally. 

To myself, as an investigator, the interest- 
ing part of this special episode lies in the 
fact that Raymond knew of his father's in- 
terest in spiritualism, knew of his writings 
on the subject, and on recovering from that 
long sleep, or rest, which had been his condi- 
tion after physical death, his first thought 
was to speak to him by this means and ac- 
quaint him with his present condition as 
proof of spiritual survival. 

He did not find this easy at first. He had 
to seek for means and gain the help of friends 
already departed. One of his father's 
friends, a very psychic individual who had 
done a great deal for the cause of spiritualism 
while on earth, came to his aid. (Myers. ) 

Naturally the bereaved father was equally 
anxious to get into communication with his 
son. It would be not only consolation, but 
proof — proof of what he had upheld, and ex- 

91 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

plained, and for sake of which he had 
achieved a vast amount of unpopularity. In 
order to prevent anything like fraud Sir 
Oliver arranged for his sittings anony- 
mously. His wife did the same, and to both, 
through the agency of two distinct and sepa- 
rate mediums, came perfectly authentic mes- 
sages from their son Raymond. 

Having conquered the first difficulty on 
his side of sending his communication 
through another power, the boy became a 
frequent and intelligible visitor. He seems 
to have been aided at first by Myers (his 
father's friend), but he soon learnt to be in- 
dependent. The records of the various sit- 
tings, both of Sir Oliver and Lady Lodge, 
make very interesting reading, and com- 
pletely do away with that oft-repeated accu- 
sation that those who profess to return from 
the "other side" can tell us nothing about it. 

Raymond tells a very great deal about it, 
and in so natural and simple a manner that 
it is more convincing than clerical theories. 

92 



EXPLANATION AND DEMONSTRATION 

Still more convincing is the fact that one is 
able to recognise the frank, boyish personal- 
ity, the fun and humour of youth unex- 
hausted by new conditions. 

The limitations of a new experience and 
the difficulties of reconciling them with pre- 
conceived ideas of the next life are set forth 
in plain words. All inquirers have met with 
such obstacles. But as the sittings continue 
the communications get longer and more ex- 
plicit. The medium's queer little " control " 
becomes on personally friendly terms with 
the young soldier. She recognises him at 
once and is always ready to convey what he 
wishes through the medium. A great deal 
of what is transcribed is only personally in- 
teresting to the speakers, but so far as proof 
is possible it is convincing proof of the iden- 
tity of the spiritual Raymond with the 
earthly Raymond. Gradually his brothers 
and sisters grew interested in the accounts 
given and the possibility of communications. 
As the messages " get through " (to use the 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

boy's own words) he finds himself able to give 
tests in his own home. Still, he often com- 
plains of difficulty, arising from confusion in 
the minds of the sitters, and the change from 
one medium to another. Also his memory is 
not always dependable. He himself speaks 
of it as only helping " now and again." But 
family information such as dates of birth- 
days, holiday trips, pets, boyish possessions 
and experiments are perfectly accurate. 

In the home circle the sittings were at a 
table and the communications by raps, as the 
alphabet was spelt out. This is a somewhat 
tedious process, but through it Raymond's 
sister Honor was found to be a medium. 
Records were kept, and the very natural, 
light-hearted methods of transmission were 
striking proofs of the identity of the spirit 
boy with the one who had been so deeply 
mourned. Raymond was Raymond still. 
• •••». 

It was at one of those private sittings that 
the question was asked (which every seeker 

94 



EXPLANATION AND DEMONSTRATION 

longs to ask) : " What is the name of the 
sphere in which you are living? ' The an- 
swer came as " Summerrlodge." The note- 
taker wrote it down as "Summer. It. Lodge." 
In a previous communication it had been 
given as Summer Land. The sitters had ex- 
pected this reply to be spelt out, but the word 
" Summer," a stop, and then the boy's own 
name to complete the sentence was what 
they received. 

Another later communication speaks of a 
" very high sphere " where a sister (who had 
passed over as a child, and also a baby 
brother) had gone on. Yet " they do not 
go too far to communicate ; never so far that 
they cannot meet you when you too pass 
over." The message continues : " You gravi- 
tate here to the ones you're fond of. Those 
you're not fond of, if you meet them in the 
street, you don't bother to say * How do 
you do? ' " 

Question. There are streets then? 

05 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

Answer. Yes. Streets and houses. • . . 
You gravitate to the place you are fit for. 
There's no judge and jury. You just gravi- 
tate ; like to like. . . . Learn to help your- 
self and immediately you are helped. . . . 
no unfairness or injustice. ... A com- 
mon law operating for each and everyone. 

Question. Are all of the same rank and 
degree? 

Answer. Rank does not count as a virtue. 
High rank comes by being virtuous. . . . 
All go on to the astral plane first, just for 
a little. 1 

It is at this same sitting (4th Feb. 1916) 
that Raymond gives his first serious descrip- 

x The astral plane is, according to Theosophists, an exact 
but more beautiful representation of the earth plane, even 
as the astral body is a duplication of the physical body it 
has left behind at tihe moment of death. At death this 
astral (or spiritual) counterpart escapes into the world 
above its own. "Above" must be interpreted in order of 
spirituality not of location. The evolution of man from 
the animal has been followed by the evolution of man into 
the spiritual. Science and spirituality need not be kept 
in separate watertight compartments. They will be proved 
to be perfectly reconcilable. 



EXPLANATION AND DEMONSTRATION 

tion of the sphere to which he has passed. 
" Summerland," or " Homeland," it is 
called. " The very highest can visit you. It 
is sufficiently near the earth plane to be able 
to get to those on earth." 

Then he proceeds: " Mother, I went to a 
gorgeous place the other day. ... I was 
permitted to see what was going on in the 
highest sphere. ... I wonder if I can tell 
you what it looked like. ... I felt exalted, 
purified, lifted up. I couldn't stand up. I 
wanted to kneel" 

The description of the vision he sees and 
the sensation it creates is almost too sacred 
for reproduction in these pages. The book 
is at hand and those interested in what I have 
said can read for themselves. 

More " Raymond " Explanations 

" It seems unfair that such crowds of fel- 
lows are coming over here in the prime of life. 
But for everyone who so passes dozens of 
people in the world below open their eyes 

7 97 



THE TRUTH OF SPmiTUALISM 

and want to know where he has gone to. 
. . . Then they begin to learn something. 
Before this loss they never thought seriously 
of the subject. Now they do. They say: 
' He was so full of life, he must be some- 
where. How can we find out? ' " 

It is this endeavour to " find out " which 
has brought upon spiritualism such an ava- 
lanche of abuse from the Press, such virulent 
condemnation from the pulpit. But no sor- 
rowing mother whose own particular " Ray- 
mond " has been able to communicate with 
her, cares for outside criticism. The Church 
can give her no comfort, but spiritualism can 
and does. 

She knows that in time the warring forces 
of materialism will be brought into subjec- 
tion and that the sacrifice of manhood has in 
some measure been necessary for the purifi- 
cation of man. 

A much discussed and violently criticised 
portion of the Raymond book has been that 

98 



EXPLANATION AND DEMONSTRATION 

in which he describes the various spheres to 
which he has had access. He is " learning the 
laws of such places and that it is possible to 
prepare for the higher spheres while living 
on the lower ones." 

He describes buildings full of different 
lights; windows filled with coloured glass. 
He explains the meaning of the various col- 
ours and their influence upon physical as well 
as spiritual life. This is very remarkable, 
for many persons are affected by colour; and 
it has been found to have a healing as well as a 
malevolent influence on certain personalities. 

Raypiond speaks also of flowers blooming 
and passing out of life into life. " They do 
not decay as on earth." 

He describes houses and streets, people 
and animals (those of the domestic kind pe- 
culiarly attached to man and used in his 
service). He feels the warmth of the sun, 
but it wears a different aspect. People are 
clothed at first as on earth, until they get 

99 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

accustomed to their new conditions, then they 
wear white robes of fine texture and quality, 
men and women alike. He goes on: " There 
are laboratories over here and they manu- 
facture all sorts of things, not, as on earth, 
out of solid matter, but out of essences and 
ethers and gases." 

" When they first come over they want 
things. Some want meat and some strong 
drink, and call for whisky and soda! " 

What a shock to the preconceived idea of 
immediate spirituality which envelops the 
" passer on " ! Possibly even a greater shock 
is the boy's naive confession: " I want people 
to realise that it's just as natural as the 
earth plane." 

But that is just what most people refuse 
to realise, refuse to believe. All the teaching 
of Christianity has been against it from child- 
hood onwards. The next world will always 
be to the religionist a place of crowns and 
harps and winged forms; of some inexplic- 
able reward for the penalties of physical suf- 

100 



EXPLANATION AND DEMONSTRATION 

fering and physical sorrow. The " next 
world " is always to atone for the imperfec- 
tions of this; the next life to be one alto- 
gether " spiritual," even for the most debased 
and sinful of living creatures. There are life 
and death and the Judgment Day. Of any 
intermediate state or condition the Church 
and its followers will not allow. And the 
more theological the creed the more bigoted 
its adherents. Therefore it is that any such 
demonstration or revelation of the after-life 
as this chapter contains will not make the 
least impression upon any reader who con- 
siders his special Church, creed and cleric 
sufficient for all purpose of his soul's salva- 
tion. May his faith be rewarded! 



VII 

Certain Mediums and Certain 
Psychic Communications 

The conviction that man exists is no less 
sure than that he persists — to the spiritualist. 
Religious folk say: "But of course! We 
believe that also," 

They do not believe it in the same sense. 
They only credit man with one life, spent on 
the earth plane, and a spiritual variation but 
not extension of that life in the Christian 
heaven framed by the Book of Revelation 
and the assertions of St. Paul's 13th chapter 
of Corinthians. 

When the vexed question of spiritualism 

arises in a so-called religious circle there will 

not be many voices raised in its defence. 

" You have no proof." " Mediums are 

frauds." " Table-turning is only trickery, 

and humiliating at that." " The Bible is the 

best guide, and the only reliable one." 

I have always replied to such people: 

102 



PSYCHIC COMMUNICATIONS 

' Well, let the subject alone. No one wants 
you to believe in it unless you yourself de- 
sire to do so." 

The Spiritualist Association is not a vio- 
lently proselytising body. I have not heard 
that it has Foreign Missions and salaried 
missionaries; that it blares and trumpets 
forth its principles at the street corners ; that 
it erects expensive buildings (for which it 
cannot pay), and exacts pew rents and 
tithes and offertories from a long-suf- 
fering congregation. 

Spiritualism is a religious belief that has 
been its own prophet, its own teacher, and its 
own supporter, and it has received a more 
than usual amount of the persecution and 
cynical criticism bestowed on any unortho- 
dox form of faith. 

The religions of the world are more than 
we can count. Each has its body of votaries ; 
its special forms and ceremonies. Spiritu- 
alism is more a personal than a priestly mat- 
ter. The inquirer is brought into touch with 

103 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

certain communicating forces who assert 
their identity, claim recognition and declare 
that death is for them only a new and better 
form of life. 

The desire to communicate with those from 
whom they are parted is at first very strong 
in most of those who " pass over," But as 
they learn of the barriers between the spir- 
itual and physical world they reconcile them- 
selves to waiting on a renewal of the friend- 
ships they have temporarily lost. 

If everyone who had lost a relative or a 
friend possessed the powers of a medium 
there would be no barrier between death and 
life. But these powers are very rare, and 
not to be lightly regarded. 

I give here a few questions I have put 
to a trance medium and the answers I 
have received: 

Question. How did you discover you had 
this power? 

Answer. Quite accidentally. I went, one 
evening, into a hall or meeting-room where 

104 



PSYCHIC COMMUNICATIONS 

someone was lecturing on spiritualism. I 
was much impressed by what I heard, and 
still more impressed by the " spirit delinea- 
tions " given at the close of the address. 

Question. What do you mean by " spirit 
delineations "? 

Answer. The lecturer stood there with 
closed eyes and spoke of forms he saw, 
standing by various people in the room. He 
described these forms with all their physical 
attributes, ages, and sometimes names. The 
special person for whom the spirit visitor 
came recognised it by the description. Some- 
times a long message would be given by the 
medium, or some advice offered as to any 
difficulty or trouble. 

Question. Would it not have been easy 
to " fake " such people? A general descrip- 
tion of any elderly person would serve as 
grandmother or grandfather or parent for a 
good many people. And messages are usu- 
ally vague enough to suit any case. 

Answer. Some of the spirit forms were 

105 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

children, or quite young people. No leading 
question was asked. They were simply de- 
scribed as being present. A few were so 
spiritually garbed and so beautiful that the 
medium could scarcely fit them into a 
word-picture. 

Question. Did they give any information 
as to how they came, or from whence? 

Answer. No; not unless specially asked. 
I have heard that deep spiritual feeling is a 
sort of chain formed by links of attraction. 
These links connect the living force with the 
spiritual world. 

Question. Well, after this meeting what 
happened to yourself? 

Answer. A spirit came to me and im- 
pressed itself as that of a very dear friend 
I had lost many years before. This spirit 
informed me (through the speaker) that I 
possessed clairvoyant faculties and could be- 
come a medium if I wished. I went home 
from the hall and told my husband what had 
occurred. He was so interested that he ac- 

106 



PSYCHIC COMMUNICATIONS 

companied me to the next meeting. The 
same spirit came to me again. After the 
meeting was over we remained behind and 
spoke to the lecturer. We became friends 
and he advised me to try my powers. At first 
nothing happened. We sat at the table, and 
in a circle, and just waited patiently. Then, 
one evening, while talking to them (my hus- 
band and my lecturer friend) I went off into 
trance. I knew nothing of it. I simply be- 
came unconscious and so remained for a full 
quarter of an hour. It seemed to me that I 
went away into a long, long distance, saw 
my father and my spirit friend, and talked to 
them. Then I woke, and found myself still 
in my chair, in my own room, and saw my 
husband's anxious face. The lecturer friend 
had not allowed him to touch me. He felt 
that I was in trance conditions. After that 
the sensation became more frequent. I could 
see figures and faces and even hear voices, 
but not very distinctly. 

107 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

Question. Does it affect your health at 
all going into these trances? 

Answer. No. My spirit guides take care 
of me. They know exactly when to send me 
off and when to awake me. 

Question. Was there nothing to learn? 
Nothing to do? No sort of mental train- 
ing required? 

Answer. No. I think I am rather a 
simple-minded person. I was brought up in 
the Wesleyan faith. I had great belief in 
prayer. When I found this strange power 
had been granted me I accepted it as a duty. 
It seemed that people who mourned and 
suffered needed my help. I was glad to be 
able to give it them. 

( This medium received no payment. Her 
services were given both at public meetings 
and by private appointments. What she saw 
and explained to myself of spirit friends was 
absolutely correct. Yet she knew nothing 
of me, not even my name, until I had proved 
her powers to my own satisfaction.) 

108 



PSYCHIC COMMUNICATIONS 

Another Form of Mediumship 

This next instance is concerned with auto- 
matic writing, 

I discovered, quite by chance, that a lady 
who was a member of my club in London 
possessed this gift. 

She told me that she had discovered it first 
by finding herself writing something of which 
she had no knowledge, and which her hand 
seemed guided to inscribe. 

Sheet after sheet of paper was covered 
with some communication, and on reading it 
she found it was dictated by a relative who 
had been killed in the war. An account of his 
death, his " passing on " to the next sphere 
of existence, his f eelings and his present con- 
ditions had been written by her hand under 
the guidance of a " spirit control," as in the 
case of trance mediumship. 

She continued to test this power. She sat 
whenever the impulse came to her, merely 
taking up a pencil, laying her hand on a sheet 
of paper and awaiting results. 

109 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

Communications came from all sorts of 
people, especially through the tragic years of 
the war. Her hand was used to write mes- 
sages of comfort to unknown persons whose 
address she was directed to find. Informa- 
tion came to her from very high and notable 
folk whose names she had some delicacy in 
publishing. So when she did publish her 
little book of records she used merely initials 
in the work, but I have seen the original MS. 

I asked her if she would let me sit with her 
one evening and see for myself this peculiar 
manifestation of psychic penmanship. 

She readily consented. I spent two hours 
with her quietly in her own room, and after a 
little delay she told me the power was com- 
ing and asked for some sheets of paper. I 
put some clean foolscap on the table before 
her and watched the process. 

I felt inclined to believe she knew what 

she was writing, just as one knows what is 

coming into a letter. The only difference 

was in the extraordinary rapidity with which 

no 



PSYCHIC COMMUNICATIONS 

words were formed. At the rate at which 
her pencil moved no ordinary writing would 
have been legible. 

There were several communications before 
I received any personal attention. Then 
came my name, and following it a long and 
somewhat elaborate message from a certain 
royal person who had not long passed over, 
whose death I had sincerely mourned, 
and who now assured me that there was a 
' work I was specially desired to do, and could 
do, if only I would set prejudice aside and 
give my thoughts to it. 

(I will take this opportunity of saying 
that but for that message the work I am now 
doing would never have been attempted. ) 

I resolutely disregarded the message. I 

had other sort of work on hand. I did not 

wish to mix myself up with spiritualism 

again, for I had dropped the subject in all its 

phases for many years. I said to myself : " I 

shall never write such a book. There are 

plenty better scribes and higher authorities 

111 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

than myself." And so I put the thought of 
it away and with it the memory of that 
eventful evening. 

Some three years later I met a lady who 
had just been reading a book of mine/ She 
told me that it had greatly impressed her, and 
the subject led us on to discuss various phases 
and forms of religion. She mentioned at- 
tending the meetings of the Spiritual Alli- 
ance Society in our neighbourhood, and 
spoke of the wonderful exhibitions of clair- 
voyance given there. Curiosity impelled me 
to go to the next meeting. I received no per- 
sonal communication then, but on the second 
occasion the medium described a spirit form, 
the arms filled with papers which he was 
throwing into my lap. They were blank 
papers, unwritten on, but the messenger said 
they were " waiting my attention." 

It struck me that the medium had learnt 
in the meantime that writing was my pro- 
fession, and I sternly set myself to disregard 

1 The Wrong End of Religion. 

112 



PSYCHIC COMMUNICATIONS 

the suggestion. But when I was quietly at 
home the idea pursued me; the impulse grew. 
The more I disregarded it the stronger it 
became. It was not the first time, nor I sup- 
pose will it be the last, that a special idea has 
forced itself upon my mind, and the plan 
of a special piece of work obsessed brain and 
thought to the exclusion of all else. I found, 
in this instance, it was better to give in than 
to resist, and so I set out to give my experi- 
ences on the subject of spiritualism. 

It was not until I had started that I re- 
membered the automatic message, and 
thought of the struggle to resist and the suc- 
ceeding enforcement of the task. 

This has been my sole experience of auto- 
matic writing. I have never come across any 
other person who possesses the gift though it 
has often been described to me. 

Other Mediumship 
Another medium whom I heard of and 
visited many years ago was an American, by 

8 113 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

name Miss F. — a most ordinary, illiterate 
little person, but possessed of extraordinary 
psychic powers. 

Her trance descriptions were very remark- 
able. She would sit down, yawn furiously 
for a few moments, then pass off into trance 
conditions. As soon as she was unconscious 
her guides took possession of her and com- 
munications began. 

A voice spoke through her lips, but it was 
not her voice. That had possessed the shrill 
nasal intonation so peculiar to our transat- 
lantic friends. The voice of the " control ' 
was deep, manlike, authoritative. It gave 
me a perfectly correct description of my past 
lif e, health and family matters known only to 
myself. After a time it grew fainter and 
then ceased. Its place was taken by another 
voice totally different in timbre, and giving 
totally different information. The first voice 
had dealt with past affairs; the new one dealt 
with present and future happenings. I lis- 
tened silent and somewhat fearful, my eyes 

114 



PSYCHIC COMMUNICATIONS 

on the medium, who was breathing deeply 
and quietly. The communicating power de- 
scribed itself as being the channel through 
which my own guide or guardian was pour- 
ing forth its warning and its prophecies. 

I had expected nothing of this sort. I felt 
alarmed and uncomfortable. What had been 
told me was of so private a nature on the one 
hand, and so uncannily possible on the other, 
that I wished myself out of the room and the 
influence of such mediumistic exhibition. 

Then the voice ceased. The medium again 
yawned vigorously, opened her eyes and 
asked if I was satisfied? I said I was, and 
paid her fee of half-a-guinea, and went home. 

Time passed. I had long given up the 
pursuit of spiritualism as an exhibition of 
marvels. I still read about it, and I was still 
interested in it, though the flock of thought- 
readers, crystal-gazers and seance-givers 
possessed no further attraction. But by de- 
grees I began to find that certain events were 
happening in my life that had been foretold 

115 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

in that American medium's little parlour. I 
found myself brought up, so to say, by sud- 
den memories of what I had long forgotten. 
I halted on the roadway of life and took 
stock of past impressions. I asked myself 
whether it would be wiser to accept a warn- 
ing or disregard it. 

It seemed to me then, and I believe it still, 
that at certain times in our lives we receive 
special warning, or special guidance. It lies 
with us to believe or to reject. 

The consequences of our decision affect 
our future in greater or lesser degree. We 
are at the cross-roads, the choice of the way, 
and very, very few of us make the 
right choice or take the right way. Suf- 
ficient to know in my own case that the 
special guide sent to warn me had good rea- 
son to do so. What of good or ill that has 
since befallen seemed of no possible avoid- 
ance at the time. They were experiences 
that meant life as I was to know life. What 
they meant of sorrow or suffering is what all 

116 



PSYCHIC COMMUNICATIONS 

life means to the individual possessor of 
physical conditions. 

I have visited other mediums, have wit- 
nessed strange manifestations of clairvoyant 
powers, but those I have specially described 
are those that made the deepest personal im- 
pression upon me, and they bring my psychic 
experiences almost up to date. 



VIII 

Perception and Theory 

If spiritualism possessed no deeper mean- 
ing than its development of phenomena it 
would still possess the attraction of interest 
in something that has been unknown or 
rather undeveloped. 

For no doubt there have always been me- 
diums, just as there have been mysteries; 
always occult teachers, just as there have 
been those who required teaching. 

Spiritual perceptions of a high order are 
not qualifications of ordinary humanity. 
Man on earth is far more concerned with 
material good and physical well-being than 
with a life which religion has hampered with 
disturbance, and the church has made as un- 
interesting as its own monotonous rubric. 

The one beautiful and uplifting feature of 
Church ceremonies is music. That alone 
redeems the eternal monotony of intoned 

118 



PERCEPTION AND THEORY 

ritual, and the dull and profitless delivery 
of sermons. 

What the Church has failed to do is 
to make religion a subject of interest; to 
paint man's future as a canvas of varied 
colour, continuous change, and largely 
self-dependent. 

Instead of this it has insisted that he was 
born in sin and is a child of evil, and has only 
been redeemed from eternal destruction by 
the sacrifice of a perfectly sinless being. 
When a child has had its inherited wickedness 
drummed into its small head, and when as an 
adult it has become used to the idea of trans- 
gression (to be atoned for by the vicarious 
sacrifice of a non-transgressor), is it any 
wonder that the spiritual outlook is dark- 
ened? It needs a vigorous rending of the 
veil to throw fresh light upon an unillumined 
indifference to spiritual matters. Sometimes 
this light is thrown by a sudden bereavement, 
a great sorrow, a personal recognition of 
disaster ; the crumbling away of an edifice of 

119 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

ambition or the pain and weariness of illness. 
Any or all of these things have at times re- 
called a man from despair to new hopeful- 
ness by showing him that physical life is at 
once the most unsatisfying and the most 
disciplinary of conditions. Once he has real- 
ised that fact his spiritual nature awakens 
and prompts him to fresh exertion, a better 
understanding of himself. 

The converts to spiritualism have been 
mostly those who have suffered personal be- 
reavement and failed to find any comfort 
in ordinary religious teaching. 

There is no doubt that the seance room 
has brought thousands of curious and scepti- 
cal folk to investigate its mysteries, but the 
wise seeker for spiritual comfort soon learns 
to look upon " phenomena " as merely a 
demonstration of elemental powers anxious 
for notoriety and chained to the physical 
plane by the lower nature they never at- 
tempted to spiritualise while on that plane. 

It only needs a little quiet thought to con- 

120 



PERCEPTION AND THEORY 

vinee oneself that out of the millions of be- 
ings passing out of this world every hour or 
moment of the day, very, very few are any- 
thing but commonplace, material and unspir- 
itual. How can such people change immedi- 
ately into sinless and glorified beings fit for 
the " Kingdom of Heaven " which the 
Bible promises as the reward of the " just 
made perfect"? 

It is as well to remember that the prom- 
ise is for those who are made perfect. The 
process may be one of the next life, or of 
many next lives, for the soul has a long jour- 
ney before it reaches a final resting-place, 
and the opportunity of making itself " just " 
or " perfect " is not limited to one faulty 
human experience. 

Taking civilisation as a mass, it is not an 

edifying spectacle. Far from it. It is full 

of selfishness, vice, immorality, injustice. It 

suits the preacher and the philanthropist to 

paint it in neutral colours of hopefulness ; to 

put the best face, so to say, on what is ac- 

121 



THE TRUTH OF SPHIITUALISM 

knowledged as very, very bad, but they 
know in their hearts that the aggregate hu- 
man being is a contemptible creature. One 
only wonders why he was created, and what 
his Creator means to do with him. 

If death were finality for some of earth's 
inhabitants it would be a fitting end. One 
stands aghast before the possibilities of loath- 
some vice and brutal crime that are as second 
nature to the special personality they in- 
habit. And it is the wonder as to what really 
happens to such people that sets imagination 
hovering about and beyond the stereotyped 
finalities of religion. 

Does spiritualism take us further afield 
or reveal any more than the Church and the 
preacher have set forth? 

It does. 

In the first place, it manifests a personal 
form of activity that we had supposed at 
an end. 

In the next it has offered reasonable ex- 
planation of continued existence under 

122 



PERCEPTION AND THEORY 

changed conditions — that are not the condi- 
tions we have hitherto recognised as only- 
possible to the realms of spirit. Life means 
some sort of action. It cannot be stagnation, 
uselessness, monotony. The character of the 
ego imprisoned for a few years in the flesh 
has opportunity for repentance and for 
atonement. The one without the other seems 
purposeless. A vain remorse would mean an 
endless purgatory, and we are not justified 
in believing that the Creator is merciless to 
the faulty and most imperfect beings who 
were once " man in His own image." 

If they were, man might well turn on 
Him and exclaim: "You made me. I 
did not ask it. Whose is the fault that I 
am imperfect? " 

The natural and delightful revelations of 
Raymond (who seems to me as the young 
prophet of the advancing spiritualist move- 
ment) are fairly conclusive as to his place 
and actions in the next world. When he says 

123 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

he is " proud to do the work appointed him," 
it seems to me that he is giving us on the earth 
plane the greatest comfort possible. For a 
continued existence of neither work, nor 
service, nor helpfulness would seem at once 
purposeless and incomplete. To live implies 
action of some sort. Death is surely a sleep, 
a rest, but hot purposeless sleep ; perpetual 
inactivity. And to anyone who has pos- 
sessed special gifts, such as those of art, 
music, writing, poetry, invention, the ces- 
sation of creative power would be a sort 
of torture. 

This theory carries me back to one of my 
own, given to me once while writing a book. 
It is that genius, interpreted as Art, has only 
manifested itself in some repeated form of 
what we call Art. There is no new Art, if 
the word symbolises music, sculpture, paint- 
ing, poetry, drama. 

We have had these things since the world 
began to proclaim itself " civilised." They 
have manifested themselves in varying de- 

124 



PERCEPTION AND THEORY 

grees of perfection throughout every genera- 
tion. They are the colour scheme of history ; 
they mean the architectural beauty of past 
ages; they have meant the uplifting of the 
soul in gratitude for creative faculties. They 
have taught great truths, great lessons, and 
given purer joy than mere material existence 
could ever render to man. But all down the 
ages these forces have only been renewed, 
not re-created. If the theory of incarnation 
proves nothing else, it proves the continua- 
tion of genius in the soul of man as a means 
to an end. It proves that certain gifts, far 
from perishing by death, live on and on, and 
return and instruct mankind. It proves that 
the soul of genius re-inhabits the earth 
plane, starting where it left off, working 
on patiently and joyfully of fulfilment, 
yet never wholly satisfied, because never 
wholly perfect. 

If there were any new art, anything as 
worthy to live and perpetuate itself as are 
music, poetry, sculpture, painting and 

125 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

drama, the theory would fall to the ground. 
But there is none. They embody all of 
beauty and sense-satisfaction that the physi- 
cal world desires. They are the grandest 
dower a man can receive; the most enchant- 
ing mistress his soul can worship. And in 
them he lives for others as well as for himself. 

Imagination is less a gift than a memory. 
The mind of genius is but a sensitive plate 
of intellectual reciprocity. It creates anew 
what has been forgotten, remaking in more 
brilliant form the crude beginnings left un- 
accomplished. Instincts are no more original 
than life is original, and life is but the persis- 
tence of some active force developing into 
the many forms and varieties of personal ex- 
istence. If the gift of genius has proved 
itself a persisting manifestation, does it not 
prove that the ego relives, and reincar- 
nates, and continues to labour for the sake 
of others? 

The architects of the Pyramids may have 
served as constructors of the great mosques 

126 



PERCEPTION AND THEORY 

and cathedrals since raised as architectural 
wonders. The poets of the East, the great 
philosophers of Greece, the musicians of 
Italy and Germany, the great artists whose 
works crowd every art gallery of fame, have 
they not relived their art and continued it in 
varying degrees of excellence only hampered 
by conditions of a new civilisation? 

It is a " fad " of critics and dilettanti to 
declare nothing that is of the present time 
can be so good as that which has been in the 
past. But putting critics and the petits- 
maitres of artificial culture aside, Art has 
persisted in living and manifesting, and the 
very accusation of modern inferiority as com- 
pared with ancient perfection is but a proof 
of variation in the instrument selected to 
carry on the work; not a proof that Art is 
less glorious or less perfect. 

And if one form of life persists, why 
not another? 

We are not all equally gifted, but there 
are graces of mind, spiritual virtues, which 

127 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

are worthy of being reincarnated, and are 
reincarnated. Love has never ceased to mani- 
fest. Neither has charity nor generosity; un- 
selfishness or courage. If such virtues go on 
existing they must have a living agency to 
exemplify them. And if they persist and 
their agents persist there must be some good 
and sufficient reason behind such persistence. 
Precepts are forgotten where examples 
are remembered. Everything that is good 
ennobles mankind. It does not perish with 
individual death, but persists as a manifest- 
ing power in other individual forces. 

In some spirit communications the next 
world has been described as one of several 
spheres, each of a higher degree of spiritual- 
ity. And the spirits who proceed to a higher 
plane after physical release are not always 
those who bore the best earthly record. 

The hypocrite has a sorry time when he 
faces himself, and knows that others around 
him see that self as it is, not as what he 

128 



PERCEPTION AND THEORY 

professed it to be. A very simple soul may 
take precedence of a very cultured one. It 
is the real good that counts ; the decent life ; 
the unselfish efforts. 

But it will be said, the Church teaches all 
this, so does the Bible. No. The Church 
does not teach it as our spiritual visitants 
teach it. The Church browbeats its congre- 
gation with " authority." It insists upon a 
wearisome form of attendance. It preaches 
confusing and contradictory doctrines, such 
as the acceptance of the Trinity, the belief in 
creeds, the obedience to commandments 
which are rendered impossible to obey. And 
it tells you that " he that belie veth not such 
things shall be damned." Which is not pleas- 
ant hearing, and drives many a terrified soul 
to some simpler form of faith. 

With spiritualism one finds oneself in 
closer touch with the next world. The service 
soothes instead of terrifies; uplifts instead 
of humiliates. Nothing is forced on one's 
faith that that faith cannot accept. If the 

9 129 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

spirit communications do not convince one of 
actual spirit messengers, there is no need to 
heed them. But such conviction is almost 
certain once the seeker rids himself of the mis- 
taken idea that spiritualism is only a form 
of phenomena; a thing of " spooks " and 
tricks and humiliating exhibitions. 

What end such things serve is well known, 
and who perpetuates them is well known. 
But as long as man holds that absurd idea 
that he passes from an actual, sordid, vicious 
or material life straight into the superiority 
of angelic aloofness, so long will he pour dis- 
credit upon a very humiliating proof that he 
is absolutely wrong in his opinion. 



IX 

Speculation and Verification 

Oh! the mighty crowd that have rushed 
into the spirit world during the past four 
awful years ! 

What hopelessness and fears, what an- 
guish and suffering have been born out of 
this war. What frightful passions were let 
loose; what hate has surged in human 
breasts till men had no thought but to slay 
or be slain ; to avenge or to die. 

How many of those who pictured these 
scenes, or witnessed them, have dared to fol- 
low those anguished souls on their next jour- 
ney; have tried to believe that such trite 
words as heroism, courage, loyalty, stood 
for more than just the surface truth of 
horrors unnamable! 

It had to be. That was all it was possible 
to say. A little common-sense, a few pre- 
cautions, the acceptance of a great leader's 
warning might have stayed the threatened 

131 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

torrent for a time, but the powers of evil were 
envious, and a flood of enmity had been let 
loose upon the empires of the world. 

Whether such tragedies are determined 
for us, or whether we bring them on our- 
selves, none may rightly know. 

Earth-bound prejudices held us. A few 
visionaries spoke of Armageddon. The 
prophecies of Daniel were evoked. Fear and 
trembling were upon the earth, and men and 
women hardly dared question of the morrow. 

On one side stood a vast host pouring out 
every devilish device that perverted imagi- 
nation had designed as " science," in the ef- 
fort to maim, poison and crush out the life 
of another host. And both hosts called on 
the name of God and invoked His aid and 
His blessing on their deeds. 

Has civilisation ever shown a stranger 
thing? 

Victory, however it turned, was supposed 
to be God's blessing on the wanton brutal- 
ity of warfare; on the ruthless destruction 

132] 



SPECULATION AND VERIFICATION 

of beings He had created, who had been bap- 
tized into his Church, taught his Scriptures, 
and were yet performing deeds that might 
have put the very Prince of Evil to 
the blush ! 

Such things pass finite understanding. It 
is all very well for statesmen and kings, 
popes and potentates to glorify them by 
high-sounding titles, but the harsh fact re- 
mains that war is a brutal outlet for brutal 
natures. Life is a sacred gift. The laws of 
every country combine to make it so for the 
individual. Why then should it become a 
" duty " to take it en masse? Why is it less 
a sin to destroy a hundred men than one? 
Why has one special personage the right 
to condemn helpless millions to the horrors 
and hardships and blood-guiltiness that he 
himself shuns, simply because he wears a 
crown and they are held in the bondage of a 
false loyalty to that insignia? 

Many a mother's heart asked that ques- 
tion. Many a wounded soldier lying in 

133 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

trench or battle-field groaned its hopeless 
problem to the stars and the night and the 
creeping shadows that he knew held only 
death. Many such travellers opening eyes 
of wonder on the next stage of their journey 
sprang for gun or sword, and shouted famil- 
iar command, unconscious as yet that they 
had " passed over." 

To be one moment pulsing with the fever- 
ish activity of the physical life, the next — 
you know not where. That has been the ex- 
planation given of many a death in France 
and Flanders; an explanation given in too 
convincing a fashion to disbelieve. 

My friend of the " automatic " writing re- 
ceived some such message as Raymond gave 
from her nephew killed in France. He could 
not believe he was dead. He thought he was 
still on earth. He saw crowds of people and 
stared confusedly at them. He felt strangely 
tired, and longed for sleep. Someone came 
to him and led him away ; it seemed to a room. 
In any case he threw himself down on a couch 

134 



SPECULATION AND VERIFICATION 

and fell immediately asleep. His wounds 
did not hurt him, though he had been badly 
wounded. He could not tell how long he 
slept, but when he woke he was told that he 
had left the earth plane. His thoughts 
rushed to those who would mourn for him. 
Could he not send a word of hope, a message 
that he still lived? Then gradually he be- 
gan to recognise friends he had known, rela- 
tives long since " passed on." Comfort was 
given him, and explanation. One day he 
suddenly found himself standing by his aunt. 
She was sitting at a table on which was some 
writing paper. He saw a pencil and found 
himself wishing he could write some message 
to assure her of his welfare. 

As the wish rose in his mind he saw the 
physical hand take up the pencil and begin 
to write his message. He did not know how 
it was done, or why. But he saw how aston- 
ished his aunt became as she read the words ; 
how she gazed up and round the room and 
spoke out his name, and then sank on her 

135 



cc 

it 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

knees and prayed in gratitude for this proof 
of continued life on the part of one they had 
deemed lost. 

But none of us are that/' he wrote. 
We all live ^ and feel well and bright and 
happy, and want to do the right thing here 
on earth. " 

Similar messages to this became a fre- 
quent occurrence at seances. Mediums who 
knew nothing of persons visiting them re- 
ceived grateful letters thanking them for 
what had been given under trance conditions. 
" Sittings " and " circles " became familiar 
incidents in many a household, for such news 
soon spreads. 

Hot-foot upon these incidents came, the 
frank and authoritative revelations of " Ray- 
mond." And what spiritualism owes to him 
and the courage of his celebrated father only 
spiritualists know. It was as if a gate had 
been unlocked and all that it had concealed 
of a realm as yet un visited was thrown open 
to the seeker. 

136 



SPECULATION AND VERIFICATION 

The reticence which had so long fenced 
the subject round, and kept those who knew 
from anything like confidences, suddenly 
disappeared. People began to speak frankly 
and openly of " spiritualism " as the bridge 
between known and unknown conditions. 
Reasonable communications came through 
various channels. Of the comfort given and 
the hopes assured only the bereaved ones 
know. The cut-and-dry barriers of so-called 
religious opinions were set at naught. With 
all reverence and in passionate gratitude the 
sorrowful mourners received their messages 
of hope, and there were not wanting many 
to declare that if the war had been disas- 
trous in one way it had made atonement 
in another. 

Taking into consideration the thousands 
upon thousands who might wish to commu- 
nicate with earth friends, and the very lim- 
ited supply of mediums who can assist them, 
it is rather wonderful that so much has 
" come through." 

137 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

It is also rather saddening to think that 
many who would like to communicate can- 
not learn the ways and means of doing so. 
Some are prevented as the penalty of mis- 
deeds on earth; others by an absence of the 
intense spiritual affection which acts 
as a magnet between the living and the 
" absent " personality. 

It was some time before Raymond gave 
the description of that sphere to which he had 
passed. His first efforts seemed to be con- 
fined to convincing his people that it really 
was himself speaking, and that they were not 
the victims of self-deception. 

Of course he was only able to speak 
through the medium's " control," and that 
fact is the one drawback to the messages, 
For this control is represented as a little 
Indian girl, and she has to make herself a 
channel between the boy who is speaking and 
the medium who is repeating what is said 
while in trance conditions. 

138 



SPECULATION AND VERIFICATION 

Sometimes this girl is very frivolous, often 
a little silly, and somewhat illiterate. One 
cannot help wondering why Raymond had 
to use her, unless it was that she was the spe- 
cial guide and protector of the special me- 
dium who was helping his people to get into 
communication with him. 

Conditions of this sort are as yet less satis- 
factory than one would desire. The mediums 
are not only very limited as to number, but, 
as I have said before, in no way remarkable 
for a high order of intelligence, or even very 
great spirituality. 

When the late W. T. Stead talked of set- 
ting up " Julia's Bureau " he had discovered 
this drawback. I know nothing of that 
bureau or whether it is in working order. I 
should imagine that Mr. Stead himself would 
have set to work on the " other side " to per- 
fect this scheme. He was an ardent spirit- 
ualist, and kept authentic records of psychic 
life and wonders. I have heard of him as 
being present at various seances, but al- 

139 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

though I knew him on this side, I have not 
had the pleasure of any greeting from 
the other. 

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is another con- 
vert to spiritualism. He has written a good 
deal about it, and of various investigations 
and experiences. But he dwells chiefly on 
the phenomenal side of the subject, for which 
I personally have little regard. It matters 
nothing to me that people can let themselves 
be tied up like parcels with sealed knots and 
complicated fastenings; that they immure 
themselves in dark cabinets and while still 
bound and tied are seemingly responsible for 
the playing of tambourines and the flinging 
out of missiles. The explanation is that they 
have allowed themselves to be used by a very 
low class of elemental spirit, whose earth 
nature is unchanged, and who is bent upon 
playing tricks for his own amusement. That 
such spirits do exist has been proved. The in- 
formation and the proof are easily obtainable 
by anyone interested in psychic research. 

140 



SPECULATION AND VERIFICATION 

The victims of idle curiosity, of a desire 
for merely something unnatural or abnormal, 
obtain what they want. 

If such psychic phenomena has been re- 
vived after all the discredit poured upon it 
in the past, it may be less to create wonder 
than to evoke inquiry. And that it has 
evoked inquiry is shown by the attention de- 
voted to the subject by the authorities I have 
quoted. It seems to me that when two scien- 
tific investigators such as Sir Oliver Lodge 
and the late Sir William Crookes throw their 
belief into the scale of psychic research their 
opinion must carry a certain weight. Such 
an opinion lifts even the much discredited 
" phenomena " out of the ruck of mere trick 
mediumship. Psychic experience is of so 
varied and peculiar a nature that it demands 
investigation by trained psychologists. 

Whether the reward of such research jus- 
tifies the persecution it receives is best known 
to the patient seeker after truth. 



Problems of Life 

The greatest barrier to anything like the 
spiritual progress of man has been man's 
conception of religion. 

It is a bold assertion, but one has only to 
read back the records of religious history to 
see that the countries controlled by priestly 
tyranny have been the greatest criminals 
against purity, clean-mindedness and prog- 
ress. Science and art and invention have had 
to fight their hardest against priestly arro- 
gance and priestly superstition. There is 
nothing more dangerous for man than to be 
set " in a little brief authority " before his 
fellow-men. And of all authority spiritual 
bigotry is at once the harshest and 
most dangerous. 

Lamentable are the records of " Holy 
Wars " ; of the terrible tragedies of Italy and 
Spain; France and Ireland; of all empires 
where the cross is raised as authority instead 

142 



PROBLEMS OF LIFE 

of weakness — the sign of man's crime against 
heaven, instead of heaven's justification of a 
foreordained sacrifice. 

The life of Christ, whether regarded as 
that of Martyr or Saviour, has been sur- 
rounded by so many myths and improbabil- 
ities that its absolute records of material 
importance are lost sight of. The Church in 
its eagerness to hold the mysteries of spirit- 
ual demonstration strove its utmost to clothe 
all such material affairs with mystery. Yet 
Christ was man. Even the Church cannot 
deny that. Man — to whom God had granted 
greater purity of mind and knowledge than 
any prophet or teacher had yet manifested. 

It is this knowledge from which man has 
been so jealously barred. He has been told 
he can only learn of it through the teachings 
of a special Church into which he has been 
received in irresponsible infancy, and from 
whose authorities he can alone secure true 
spiritual training. 

This is pure fallacy. 

143 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

The universe is permeated with spiritual 
influences. Nature teaches the secrets of 
life: seed, growth, maturity, decay; and yet 
persistence in another form after such appar- 
ent decay. The heavens are full of wisdom. 
The planets and the stars, the laws which 
govern light or darkness, or storm or calm, 
are all fixed and unchangeable laws by which 
man can read the lessons of creation. Nature 
has been the instructor of science, and if by 
Nature we understand God, science offers no 
barrier to such faith. 

The two most important questions which 
the individual man asks are: " Whence came 
I?" "Whither do I go?" 

The dust of the earth, the rib from Adam's 
side, the eating of the apple, all these have 
gained problematical significance in their 
passage down the stream of time. At the 
present age of the world's planetary exist- 
ence they are not accepted as belief by any 
sensible or educated person. So that 
" Whence came I? " has become a more per- 

144 



PROBLEMS OF LIFE 

emptory demand than in past times of 
strictly clerical teaching. 

Science has taught man the secret of life. 
He has learnt for himself of its dominating 
force ; of the struggle to preserve it and make 
the best of it according to a physical sense 
of " best." He sees the relationship of life 
to the world in which he lives and that it is 
impossible to picture the one without the 
other. He looks at his strong, well-made 
physical body and then is smitten by the hu- 
miliating fact that its strength is no more 
than that little feeble exhalation called 
" breath " ; a film on the mirror on which he 
sends it forth ; a thread no surer than the gos- 
samer unsubstantiality of a spider's web. 

To realise this is to formulate the second 
question: " Whither do I go? " 

The phenomena of spiritualism offers 
help. It has shown the continuation of the 
earth body in a new form, but wearing the 
same aspect. 

Christ himself appeared in this aspect, if 

10 145 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

His physical death is credited. Why should 
He have done so if it were not to show the 
world at large that not only does the sem- 
blance of the body persist, but it can prove 
and show its persistence! Yet it is here that 
spiritualism comes up against the shipwreck- 
ing opposition of the Church. 

Apparitions as Biblical records — well and 
good. But apparitions in the nineteenth 
century, speaking, giving messages, re- 
vealing things appertaining to the next 
world — impossible ! 

Express your feelings about the real ego 
to a clergyman. Tell him you are not satis- 
fied with what the Church says, or what cer- 
tain Biblical authorities have said as to its 
conditions after death, and he will call you 
presumptuous. He will demand sternly how 
you dare to question the Word of God. Ask 
him: " But is it the Word of God? " and he 
will say he does not argue with heretics, and 
that he will pray for a better understanding 
on your part, and so — good-bye to you! 

146 



PROBLEMS OF LIFE 

What exactly is life? Who shall define 
it satisfactorily? For we live in our emo- 
tions, our affections, our creations, as well 
as in our physical exertions. Matter without 
spirit does not seem a satisfactory existence, 
although spirit without matter has proved 
itself the possessor of life. It would seem as 
if the material body of man drew into itself 
certain forces for certain purposes, and at 
the same time used them as a manifestation 
of purpose. 

The phase of spiritual phenomena which 
proves the materialisation of a spirit body 
as possible is the phase most bitterly com- 
bated. Also it has allowed of unworthy 
practices. At certain seances the medium 
has been proved to disguise himself and pre- 
tend to be the character he represents. One 
such discovery is enough to throw discredit 
upon the whole business. 

Yet there have been dishonest lawyers, 
dishonest clergymen, dishonest statesmen, 
though the Law, the Church and the Govern- 

147 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

ment still persist and still carry on their vari- 
ous professions. Of course the one great 
objection to materialisation is that it must 
take place in the dark. And in darkness 
trickery is more possible than in the light 
of day. 

But the sceptic might consider also that 
certain phenomena require certain condi- 
tions. We do not yet fully understand the 
chemical forces of the body. We have been 
told there is something perpetually going on 
within it in the shape of molecular activity; 
that there are red and white corpuscles in the 
blood, and the two urge perpetual warfare 
for its physical welfare or destruction. Thus 
it would seem we inherit the seeds of death 
with the seeds of life. But we never think 
of that unless the internal warfare produces 
bodily sickness. For hundreds of years men 
knew nothing of these facts. They lived and 
died and suffered, and called it the Will of 
God. Science calls it Biology. 

Some day science will give its attention 

148 



PROBLEMS OF LIFE 

to the phenomenon of materialising a visible 
body in the shadowy darkness of a room 
where a few serious-minded and anxious 
people are assembled. Science may possibly 
remember that life-production is always a 
secret process. Nature's creative functions 
work only in the darkness. Flowers and blos- 
soms do not spring ready-born into the sun- 
light. Roots of trees and plants perform 
their miracles of sustenance and continuation 
in the depths of the earth. Is it therefore un- 
natural that so wonderful a phenomenon as 
spirit appearance should require darkness in 
the process of using the living force it derives 
from some mediumistic helper? There must 
be darkness to emphasize light. And the 
spirit form is shaped and shown as light; 
ethereal, uncertain; wavering between the 
unconscious human entity from whom its 
visibility has been drawn, and the circle of 
watchers to whom such visibility is inexplic- 
able. The giving-out of the power for such 
manifestations is a terrible risk for the me- 

149 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

dium; a risk hardly worth the wonder it 
arouses, the incredulity it receives. 

As yet the whole matter is wrapped in 
mystery. We only know that materialisa- 
tion is as much a problem as foetal develop- 
ment and, like it, insists upon performing its 
creative work in darkness. But as such work 
implies an intelligence and a purpose it 
should not be impossible to discover the 
source of both. 

Possibly the medium co-operates with the 
spirit force; certainly the control or guide 
must direct operations. There is something 
rather awful and awe-inspiring in the whole 
business. It is not one that I personally 
favour. I should not care to have anyone I 
loved show themselves to me by such a proc- 
ess. I would rather wait on that meeting in 
the spirit world which becomes more and 
more assured the more we study spiritualism. 

It is as a problem of the life forces mani- 
fested after death that materialisation chiefly 

150 



PROBLEMS OF LIFE 

attracts attention. As spirit voices depend 
upon etherical vibrations, so must spirit visi- 
bility build itself out of etherical substance. 
Air space, electric force, the presence of other 
material forms, the subconscious obedience 
of one special agent, all these seem necessary 
to the process. But the true meaning of such 
phenomena is not half understood, especially 
in their dangerous conditions. We hardly 
dare believe in the reality of the shadowy 
something we see developing from a mere 
thread into seeming stability. We hardly 
dare to question who or what it is that hovers 
before us in the seance room, and whose 
whispered assurance of identity is less con- 
vincing than alarming. 

Is there really no death? Was what we 
saw coffined and put aside from human ken 
into the darkness of the grave merely a shell 
of which this is the living counterpart? Or 
are we deceiving ourselves; hypnotised into 
a dumb acceptance of marvels? These are 
questions we dare not ask at first. Only with 

151 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

patient study of the subject and a growing 
interest as well as a growing confidence in 
its importance do we summon courage to do 
so. Then we are surprised to find how many 
others have had the same thoughts, the same 
doubts, the same hesitance. 

The problem of life becomes less interest- 
ing than that of death if once we realise that 
there is no actual death of what we have rec- 
ognised as ourselves. Just a brief severance 
from the plane of one existence to the con- 
tinuity of another ; the progress of individual 
force into the many forces and variations of 
physical and psychic consciousness. As the 
certainty of this continuity grows within us, 
so also we learn the reason for our many 
journeys to the physical plane. How we 
proceed from matter to spirit, and spirit 
back again to matter, always cumbered with 
certain duties, certain obligations from which 
there is no escape. Whoever yet lived in this 
world who would not change some condition 
of his life if it were possible? Who has ever 

152 



PROBLEMS OF LIFE 

known perfect content? And the reason is 
that before the physical experience we know, 
we have sinned; we are re-created to suffer 
for such sin ; sometimes to atone. 

It is the reason for an action that makes 
its merit or its guilt. Sometimes the guilt 
lies in the consequences that that action has 
brought upon others. The spirit is con- 
fronted with the deeds of the body, and must 
acknowledge with shame and penitence a 
presented record of the past. 

In all the many legends of haunted houses, 
persisting apparitions and such-like phe- 
nomena there has always been a confession of 
guilt ; a desire to atone ; a passionate seeking 
for some spiritual help from those whose 
prayers might lift the hateful burden. The 
wandering spirit can find no rest, no peace. 
Earth-bound by its physical crimes, it must 
remain on the old battle-field of moral strife. 
It must show itself to anyone whose psychic 
powers enable it to do so. It has not cast 

153 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

off personality with death; it cannot forget; 
the very hell of its own making is the hell that 
holds it chained to its earthly sin. 

In such instances one recognises a use in 
the seance room and in the mysteries of medi- 
umistic powers. Through these powers 
comes cognisance of such troubled souls., and 
through their sight and speech is confession 
possible. In all such records confession 
seems a necessity. If not by spoken word, 
by action which has led to discovery of some 
victim of crime, or some hidden treachery by 
which others have suffered. 

Have such things no meaning? 

They at least possess the power of making 
man think out for himself the problems of 
the spirit world; of asking why, if one entity 
can manifest itself, should not another. But 
in so asking it may be well to remember that 
when such spiritual entity did present itself 
it was not seen by the many but the few. 
Samuel, Elijah, Christ were only visible to 
a limited circle of " witnesses." No human 

154 



PROBLEMS OF LIFE 

eye actually saw Jesus leave the tomb. Yet 
all Christians believe he did leave it, and did 
show himself in spirit form to the little crowd 
of disciples. 

Does miracle then disprove itself? No 
force of nature was ever known to alter its 
rules of creating, destroying and persisting. 
Do not these faculties embrace the whole 
phenomena of physical life? 

Creation — birth., Destruction — physical 
death. Persistence — spirit continuation. 



XI 

On Spirit Continuance and Survival 

Human life represents human progress 
as well as human backsliding. 

If, according to the Theosophist, the pres- 
ent is but an outcome of the past, and suc- 
ceeding races are but branches of the first 
or root-race, the history of mankind is of 
endless interest. 

For in all this persistence it is the spirit 
of man that has raised him out of crude ig- 
norance and mere brute strength to ever 
greater intelligence. To recognise mistakes 
and be granted the power to relive one's lost 
opportunities and thus amend them, surely 
means a more rational outlook for men than 
one life and one death. 

It also shows both good and sufficient rea- 
son for that persisting force of Art which 
throughout the ages has manifested itself in 
portrayal of beauty and sound and structure. 
Art proved that genius had a purpose; that 

156 



SPIRIT CONTINUANCE AND SURVIVAL 

it was perceptive as well as creative; and Art 
made man the channel for its own powers of 
manifestation, and has helped him to adorn 
and illumine the world in which he found 
temporary resting-place. 

Yet Art seems to have been accepted as 
the purely physical development of culture. 
Without the physical instrument it could not 
manifest itself, therefore some special brain 
or hand of man were alone responsible for 
his intellect or his artistry. 

Had this been so Art would have died 
when its portrayer died. The reed holds no 
music when the singer is dumb. But Art has 
never died because it lives in the spirit of 
man, not in his body. It is the gift of some 
persisting personality to another personality 
that follows it. 

The artist himself is amazed by the first 
discovery of his power. His soul is flooded 
as it were with the light " that never was on 
land or sea," but radiates for ever in the 
heaven of the immortals. The pride in that 

157 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

discovery of being able to do any special 
thing better than one's fellow-man is only 
exceeded by the wonder that such power is 
given to so few. 

It would make the whole world happier if 
the poet's soul, the artist's eye, the sculptor's 
sense of form and the writer's gift of imagi- 
nation were more universal. But Fate has 
decreed otherwise. 

There shall always be the giver and 
the receiver; always the creator and the 
thing created. 

The j oy of life is novelty. Something new 
to think about or experience. Something un- 
explored to test one's patience for investi- 
gating. Some kind power has made of 
thought the nucleus of every invention and 
every activity that has made physical life 
so wonderful. 

For all things spring from a thought in 
the first instance. Possibly creation itself 
did so. Thought is no abstract idealistic 
function of the brain, but rather the essence 

158 



SPIRIT CONTINUANCE AND SURVIVAL 

of a reality. It is in thought that man de- 
velops his schemes and his inventions; his 
projects of ambition; his gifts of imagina- 
tion. Yet who shall say exactly what thought 
is j and whence it comes? 

If from the brain, then we must believe 
that the brain is an operating agent of some 
higher intelligence that pours into receptive 
channels what it formulates as outward 
manifestation. And that " intelligence " is 
not of this world or of purely physical con- 
ditions. Thought operates from the mental 
on to the material plane. Thought trans- 
lates ideality into plain reality. Thought is 
the seed from which proceeds the blossom 
and the fruit of mental conception, and 
thought is the power and meaning of life, 
the harmonious rhythm which vibrates to 
all emotional activity. 

It is undoubtedly in the region of thought 
that the spirit operates. Science has spoken 
of " thought waves " ; mental currents as real 
as the conducting forces of heat and light and 

159 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

magnetism. These currents flow onward and 
outward to the shores of active uses; they 
become man's helper as well as his teacher. 
They respond to all shades and degrees of 
harmony. They attract and they repel. 

If the power of thought were realised as 
the danger it is, man would be educated into 
using it as carefully as he is taught to use 
the electric current; to mix, or separate 
chemical products; to experiment with ex- 
plosive substance. But he receives no educa- 
tion that teaches of such danger, because his 
teachers have for centuries taken it for 
granted that brain is a mere physical 
attribute of the body and thought appertains 
to that attribute. 

Almost all education is commonplace or 
artificial. It deals with intelligence en masse, 
and trains every shoot and branch of the 
young tree in the same manner and by the 
same methods. 

Mental difference is self-developed. Edu- 
cation does not evolve, still less does it help 

160 



SPIRIT CONTINUANCE AND SURVIVAL 

it. Education classifies all characters, na- 
tures and dispositions as one force to be gov- 
erned by another force. Such delicate varia- 
tions as spirituality, ideality, sensitiveness, 
psychic tendencies are ruthlessly swept into 
the same unmodified conditions as have been 
standardised by custom. 

Religion, as an educative factor, is at once 
the most hopeless and helpless of all educa- 
tive resources; and that because it makes 
little appeal to either the intelligence or the 
sympathy of the young. Also because it is 
enforced as a rule of observance. The child 
hates coercion as much as he hates inaction. 
The early boredom of Catechism and Scrip- 
ture lessons, morning prayer and church at- 
tendance makes an indelible impression upon 
the young mind. School and college and the 
society of its fellows do not as a rule en- 
lighten that impression with any degree of 
spiritual meaning. Whatever does visit 
that young mind in the form of spiritual- 
ity is the product of thought, and thought 

11 161 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

has its own ground of self-teaching and 
self-development. 

Possibly in some day to come science will 
have traced the demonstration of brain 
energy to the operating forces of another 
sphere of activity; to past energies longing 
for re-manifestation ; to thought waves float- 
ing on a sea of ever-restless vitality ; to those 
mystic air currents of whose power we still 
know so little save that they can be caught 
and chained to telegraphic elucidation. All 
these things so strange and so mysterious to- 
day may be no longer mysterious and no 
longer inexplicable to another generation. 

The inventor of wireless telegraphy has 
hinted at such possibility as wireless tele- 
phonic speech from one end of the earth to 
the other. The idea of distance has long 
ceased to be a barrier to travel or intercom- 
munication with far-off nations. The idea of 
space as untraversable may likewise become 
an idea to be abolished by the possibilities of 
planetary communication. Not half of the 

162 



SPIRIT CONTINUANCE AND SURVIVAL 

mysteries of the universe or of ourselves as 
part of that universe are yet known. 

Those who have passed on to other spheres 
may be anxious to throw open the gates to the 
seeker, and still be withheld by the knowledge 
that " the time is not yet." 

That it will come, all those who have had 
anything to do with spiritual revelations or 
spiritual agency feel perfectly assured. The 
chain of worlds to which this earth belongs 
are not all of similar substance, or fitted for 
material habitation such as we call life. Some 
axe so much higher in the scale of spiritual- 
ity that they regard our little planet as vastly 
inferior to their own. That is not surprising. 
One can hardly picture any place of greater 
stupidity and criminality. But some secret 
ministration has always helped mankind for- 
ward on the road of progress ; on the road of 
his own endeavour to perfect what is faulty 
and ennoble what is great. Has taught him 
to recognise beauty in nature, and purity in 
spirit, and possibility in character. And 

163 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

these ministrants are sent to him by the great 
Creative Spirit whose " thought " he was. 
And so long as he desires their service and 
is grateful for their help so long will they 
be at hand to guide and to bless his efforts to 
live life so that he may not relive to regret it. 

While touching upon that ground of re- 
curring lives I am reminded of an oft-put 
question on this subject. 

It is : " Why if we relive on this 
earth plane do we not remember our pre- 
vious lives? " 

I can only answer as I was answered: 
" Some do remember. But even for those 
who do not seem to do so, the memories are 
there; packed away in a remote corner of 
one's being, occasionally showing themselves 
in dreams, or in some scene revisited. But in 
every instance the memories only await the 
day of spiritual attainment. At the end of 
the journey you will be able to look back 
upon all its past stages/' 

This answer, however, may not seem alto- 

164 



SPIRIT CONTINUANCE AND SURVIVAL 

gether satisfying. To every one interested 
in the subject of reincarnation the most im- 
portant point is that of past identity with 
present consciousness. 

The ancient Eastern books, so much more 
ancient, and so much wiser and more pro- 
found than our modern Bibles, teach that 
man revisits earth because of an unfulfilled 
destiny, or a desire for more experience of 
physical life. He can only do this through 
the intermediation of physical parents. 
When he again takes up life he has to un- 
dergo a new form of experience occasioned 
by his good or evil deeds in a former experi- 
ence. Sometimes, as in a flash, he sees him- 
self a victim of past errors, and knows he is 
forewarned not to repeat them. Sometimes 
the spiritual is overborne by the physical, and 
he sins and re-sins, and throws off any evan- 
escent remorse with the indifference of sati- 
ety. The desire for material happines is 
never satisfied. 

On this material plane we only glimpse 
happiness. We never possess it. 

165 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

Spiritual aspirations will alone draw the 
soul into the celestial world, and there it will 
learn the true meaning of life. And there 
it will remember the past. 

On the physical plane such memory would 
only be profitless, and weaken the hold on 
present conditions. Man can only vision the 
Future through the Now. His present is 
full of brief and ephemeral desires. He is in 
a school whose education is enforced and only 
a determined struggle can release him. The 
fiercer the struggle the greater the victory, 
and with the victory will come that prophetic 
vision of the soul which ever strives to re- 
make itself in a Divine likeness. He will see 
the life of to-day as a link in the chain of all 
days that are past and all days to come. 
Then with some profit to himself he 
may recall all he has been, and done, and 
left undone. 

The individual is driven back to the 
Source, the great creator of Itself. He 
learns, not of some dim survival beyond the 
grave, but the full meaning of life immortal. 



XII 

What is Spiritualism? 

And now for the summing up of the whole 
matter. What exactly is Spiritualism, and 
how does it affect the acknowledged religions 
of the world? 

In the first place it is not an orthodox re- 
ligion, although it is the root and source of 
all religions. It is not a science, although it 
idealises all science. It is not a phenomenon, 
although it produces and manifests many 
forms of phenomena. It is the possibil- 
ity of intercommunion between the earth 
and the world beyond the earth; between 
those who live physically and those who live 
spiritually. It uses the life of each as a mani- 
festation of the inward meaning of Life, as 
life embraces body, soul and spirit. 

It has no creed save that of love and an 
endless compassion. It recognises the f ather- 

167 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

hood of God and the brotherhood of man. 
It believes in the immortality of the soul as 
well as in the immortality of its highest char- 
acteristics. It asserts with humble confi- 
dence the possibility of communion between 
spirit and mortal. 

It acknowledges personal responsibility 
for good or evil; compensation and retribu- 
tion for all such good or evil done on the 
physical plane. And it shows a path of 
eternal progress open to every human soul 
that desires to travel onward to the goal of 
eternal good. 

This is the true teaching of Spiritualism. 
And much of it comes through the trance 
conditions imposed upon certain subjects 
of transmission. 

This would seem to prove the truth of 
the statements conveyed that the spirit world 
is helping and ministering to the denizens of 
the physical world as a duty laid upon its 
inhabitants after passing on from earth life 
to the plane beyond. 

168 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM ? 

It is a mission allotted to certain spirits of 
a high and unselfish order. It is also a mis- 
sion often besought by such spirits as are 
very closely linked to the love and kinship 
of earth. 

How often have people felt they were 
helped over some difficulty ; strengthened in 
some hour of sorrow; comforted after some 
disaster. Such help and comfort are not 
mere accidents. They are the spiritual proof 
of consciousness persisting as consciousness. 
They are the voice of faith calling upon faith 
and entreating its continuance. It we real- 
ised that spirit companionship was not a phe- 
nomenal but a natural occurrence, would it 
not make us more careful in our way of con- 
ducting ourselves on this earth plane? 
Would we not welcome the idea that no far- 
off judicial eye was watching us, but the same 
loving human eye we had known and loved 
on earth? Would not the feeling of such 
guardianship keep us from falling into error; 
from the performance of any mean or sinful 

169 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

action that would have shamed us in that 
departed presence? 

It seems to me that this is what Spiritual- 
ism has come to teach. No stern implacable 
law; no awe-inspiring dread of some Omnip- 
otent Being who hates us for being " born 
in sin ' 9 and therefore unable to reach any 
standard of sinlessness, but a lesson of our 
responsibility to ourselves as well as to those 
whom we love and who loved us. 

If our actions were guided by the thought, 
" Do they see us — are they present here? ' 
how could we do things of which they would 
be ashamed? How show to them the mean- 
ness or selfishness we had carefully guarded 
from their physical knowledge? 

The teaching of orthodox religion holds no 
such theory. The dead are far away in some 
realm of blessedness and oblivion. That 
their spirits should preserve any conscious- 
ness of material things (even so fax as help- 
ing to ameliorate them) is a presumption not 
to be entertained. 

170 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM ? 

Their fate has been arbitrarily fixed. No 
one must presume to interfere with it. 

And this is one reason why orthodoxy is 
so set against spiritualism and why the sav- 
agely material man so hates the assumption 
of psychic manifestation. But abuse and 
persecution and even ridicule cannot alter a 
truth that has been once proved and accepted 
by even a limited number of truth-seekers. 

They can afford to wait on the world's rec- 
ognition. They know that a tardy delay of 
such acknowledgment only affects that 
world. The hour will come when man will 
know, even as he is known. 

And now to return once more to that " red 
rag " of bovine infuriation — phenomena. 
Many people ask: " How can we get into 
touch with the spirit world? " " How find 
out whether a loved one we have lost can 
communicate with us? " " Must there be a 
seance room ; a medium ; the exposure of deli- 
cate and intimate f eelings before a crowd of 
unknown, even if sympathetic persons? " 

171 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

I am afraid I can only say: " Yes " — un- 
less the inquirer possesses the qualifications 
of a medium. But this qualification is not 
so uncommon as we suppose. It is often un- 
suspected and therefore undeveloped. We 
can rush into no business, or art, or profes- 
sion on the impulse of mere desire. We must 
train ourselves mentally. In like manner we 
have to learn a mode of spiritual training for 
spiritual things. 

The revelations of " Raymond " came first 
through a professional medium, influenced 
by a friend of the boy's father who had been 
an ardent spiritualist. But once communica- 
tion had been made possible the family pur- 
sued it privately in the home circle. If the 
means and methods of doing so seem crude 
and trivial, they only prove what all begin- 
nings prove, that the instrument used for any 
special purpose is far less significant than 
the purpose behind its use. 

The greatest mechanical invention is de- 
pendent on some small screw, some tiny fit- 

172 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM ? 

ting of its engine. The great discovery of the 
world's gravitation was made through the 
fall of an apple. The amazing possibilities 
of railway transport sprang from the steam- 
power of a boiling kettle. The mind that 
seized upon that triviality and foresaw its 
effect upon the future was only the mind of 
a poor hard-working mechanic who supple- 
mented a scanty wage by mending watches. 
But Nature selects her own workmen and 
pays scant attention to external attributes. 
She knows what she requires, and how to 
obtain it. If, therefore, the development of 
spirit communication is only to be brought 
about by the powers of mediumship, those 
powers will be evoked and continued. Cer- 
tain conditions are as essential to their physi- 
cal demonstration as fire is necessary for 
heat, or light for purpose of illumination. 
We see cause and effect in all the aspects of 
life, in all the discoveries of science. 

We might remember that men were once 
scourged to death for beliefs that now are 

173 



THE TRUTH OF SPIRITUALISM 

second nature ; that nothing in the shape of 
discovery has ever been born into accept- 
ance without opposition. And remembering 
this we can trust the whole mysterious mean- 
ing of spiritual phenomena to that future 
which shall either prove or destroy it. We 
may also discover that when the vicious, the 
sceptical and the readily credulous are ex- 
cluded from a circle of inquirers the results 
will prove more worthy of the cause. There 
is no need to fear tests of what is manifested 
as long as those who seek them are neither 
blinded by prejudice or encased in ma- 
terial arrogance. 

But if we seek and are sought by spiritual 
friends on that " other side " of which we 
speak so frankly, we must approach them 
with due solemnity, and a due regard to the 
ethics of psychic as well as material science. 

The heavy curtain of doubt that has so 
long hung between two worlds, parting the 
Here from the Beyond, is slowly lifting, and 
slowly revealing what our own fears have 

174 



WHAT IS SPIRITUALISM ? 

kept from us. Once we realise that we are 
receiving help, and giving it, that the spirits 
beyond can and do visit us and remember us, 
that life is a continuation, not a termination, 
the meaning of death's great mystery will be 
made clear, and we shall pursue fearlessly 
and high-mindedly all that pertains to the 
psychology of existence. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process, 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Nov. 2004 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




013 523 163 



